Page 1 - To Marmot Lake

September 29, 1983
10:35 AM
Marmot Lake, 4930’
48° inside the tent

PCT near Fish Lake

Such a beautiful day! Clear, blue skies and bright sunshine. Were but it a bit warmer, it would be perfect. But, because of the freezing nighttime temperatures, the fall colors were popping out all over the place.

E. dropped Micki and me off at the parking lot yesterday just outside the Fish Lake ranger station at about 10:30 AM.

It took us six hours of steady slogging up the PCT to get here. I figure we made a grand total of a lousy 8.5 miles, so that makes a scorching 1.5 mph pace. Yowza. (Micki says to stop blaming her … she had nothing to do with my lazy-ass waddling.)

As usual, I started off slowly to make sure my back wouldn't give me any problems. And it really didn’t; as it so happened, it was the muscles up above my quads that started cramping during the last mile. That mile took almost an hour and was very painful. (Cue tiny violin and soulful voice singing ‘why do I keep doing this to myself?’)

Pond on Blue Ridge

Once you cut off from the PCT just south of Deception Pass and head west, you climb gently to Blue Ridge where there are a couple of picturesque little ponds and a view over a valley to the ridge further west that holds Marmot Lake. Of course, we had to drop down into the valley, traverse around it, and then climb the ridge. That last bit was a lot steeper than it looked on the map and that’s the last mile that took so long.

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