In my continuing quest to rack up mileage on the Pacific Crest Trail I conned Amy's father, Carl, to hike from Stampede Pass to Mirror Lake. Unfortunately, I had figured the distance to be a meager eight miles to Mirror Lake. Why's that unfortunate? It was really 12.5 miles from car to car. Oops.
The trail is fairly well maintained, but could use a bit of a brushing. It's typical PCT in terms of its elevation gain and loss (2,700 feet up and 1,700 feet down), but paled in comparison to the views you get from other sections. About half the trail was clearcut and full of a stalky plant that released cotton-like seeds when touched. The seeds stuck to us as we made our way through so we looked like half-plucked chickens before long.
We made good time from Stampede to Stirrup Lake where we stopped for lunch. Clara wasn't terribly intersested in the bottle when also confronted with Tokul chasing sticks and the sun shining through the trees.
From Stirrup Lake we crossed yet another road (the 12 miles was chock full of roads crossing the trail ensuring you never felt you were really in the wild) and headed into the woods. I began dancing in a way guaranteed to embarass my entire family, but I had a good excuse. A bee had decided my calf was a keen target and made good on his intentions.
Carl pulled out the stinger about the same time I looked down to see we were all but standing on the hive. We double-timed it up the trail a little way until we had a chance to check to see who else was being attacked. The two-legged folks were all clean, but poor Tokul had a pair trying to find a way through her thick coat. We cleaned her off and continued on her way.
The trail climbed up to the boundary of the Cedar River Watershed and then down to Yakima Pass and Twighlight Lake. Tokul decided she had had enough by this time and took the opportunity to lie down in the dirt of the trail. From Yakima Pass to Mirror lake (a little less than a mile) Tokul rested whenever she got a chance.
She got plenty of chances as we climbed out of the pass and up to Mirror Lake about 700 feet above. The climb was pretty much straight up, but the reward was Mirror Lake, though there were plenty of bees there according to a family that passed where we were sitting.
Rather than hang out with the hive we climbed down to the car we had left earlier in the morning, picked up the car we had used to get to Stampede Pass, and headed back to North Bend.
