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Day 4, Aug. 29, 2014

John's photo of me setting up my tent in the fire-damaged forest south of Mount Adams.

I did stagger into camp behind John last night, but I did the 14 miles and found us a good campsite under some fire-damaged trees (luckily nothing fell on us during the windy night). We walked for miles through a forest blackened by a fire in 2012, and we camped along a meadow with a stream clouded by glacier silt. Filtered the water and I’m still breathing after using it to cook supper (freeze-dried dinners, Cup-A-Soup, tea and a bite of chocolate bar every night). The stream’s “milk” is from the rocks ground by the glacier above us. John says it adds minerals to the diet.

We are now more to the southern side of Mount Adams, and the glacier above us is either the White Salmon or the Avalanche Glacier. Earlier in the day we were on the west side of the mountain and viewing the Adams and Pinnacle Glaciers.

I got up in the night to pee (too windy and cold to sleep in the open or without the rain fly on my tent for star gazing), and the stars were bright and numerous – obviously too vast to count. Another instance of things seeming bigger and closer when you are standing at 6,000 feet halfway up an 12,276-foot mountain. The Big Dipper seemed like you could reach up and grab it for a drink. Think of the huge volume of water it could hold if it really were a dipper. You could measure out drinks in solar-system sized cups. The North Star was not quite where I had reckoned north would be, but I felt reassured knowing it probably had it right. The Milky Way stretched clear across the sky, and seeing a UFO would not have been a surprise. There was light on the south horizon. I’m surmising it was the moon starting to rise, but I was too cold to stay up and watch for it (slept in my long johns, sock hat and gloves).

First stop in Trout Lake: the Station Cafe's coffee stand for a grande Americano with no room for cream.

We hiked out the six miles to Road 23 and drove to Walupt Lake to get my truck. Then drove to Trout Lake where we will have a “zero day” tomorrow, as in no miles on the trail. The town’s rummage sale is this Labor Day weekend, and the money goes for scholarships to help the six college-bound students in this year’s graduating class of 12. Found a copy of “Loving Frank,” a book recommended by Mary Jo, my sister, recently. Bought it for a quarter.

Ate at the Station Café with John. His B&B host offered to do our laundry, which was brave of him. For the past couple of days I thought I smelled horses even when there were none around and even away from the trail's horse nasties (a name from a Boy Scout hike with my son 20 years ago). Then last night I got in my tent, and the smell was overpowering. I could not recall a recent horse visitor to my tent, which left me with only one conclusion: I was the source of the equine ether. I hope it doesn't knock out the innkeeper.

The Station Cafe's backyard.

I remember passing through Trout Lake in the early 1970s with Mary Jo. It might have been on the way or coming back from camping on the slopes of Mount Adams, a night when the tent ties had to be weighted down with rocks to keep the tent from blowing away. I remember the town as having one business, which served delicious huckleberry pie. There are more businesses in town now, but huckleberry pie is still a specialty. I had an excellent piece tonight at the Station Café, which has a backyard filled with activities for folks passing through: horseshoes, badminton, chess and checkers.

Trout Lake Country Inn.

I’m staying in the Trout Lake Country Inn in a pine-paneled room above the bar. No live music tonight but nothing was said about tomorrow night. The place is a hangout for hikers, river guides and locals. Met Libby tonight, who works at the inn and is also a river guide for Wet Planet, running trips on the nearby White Salmon River. If, as threatened, I turn to river-rafting next summer instead of biking and hiking, I may have to schedule a float with them.

My room at the Country Inn.

I have been invited to an 8:30 breakfast at John’s B&B. Nice of them to include me.