August 7

2263-2293

Today is a celebration of why we love to be on this trail.

We climb out of the forest into the meadowy high country of the goat rocks wilderness.

Fresh spring water pours from the hillsides as small rivulets and cuts a path through verdant flowery meadows.

It is wonderful. The hiking is difficult, but walking through this area, after enduring the burn scars and heat waves, feels like a validation.

Eventually we climb up to one of the most heavily anticipated few miles of the entire PCT- the goat rocks knife edge. For 10 miles we walk along a narrow ridge along the shoulders of old snowy- the remains of a long extinct stratovolcano.

With thousand foot drop offs on both sides, the knife edge is aptly named.

We climb 7000 feet of vertical gain today, over 30 miles.

We celebrate our descent off the high country with a questionable glissade. You can see the snow patch in the distance of the above photo.

We hustle the rest of the day, 15 more miles, to get to the upper slopes of the white pass ski resort. Sometimes the lifts have outlets that we can plug our portable batteries into to recharge. The power is off, but it is still cool to camp on ski infrastructure in the off season.