August 1, 2018. Goodenough Mountain to Upper Cathedral Lake
I woke up tired and a bit groggy. I was only up a little earlier than the sunrise. I wanted to catch it as it passed through the smoke plume. I was able to only get a few photos, nothing interesting.
There is one kind of tree that turns white when it burns. I “liked” the contrasts between the charred branches and white trunk on this one.
I soon was walking as the morning was just a little cold. I reached the peak of Goodenough Mountain. I spent some time wondering about the name. I could not recall anybody famous with that last name. Surely, the name could not be for an explorer. Can you imagine signing up for an adventure led by Colonel Goodenough? “We shall name that Mount Average, this one OkayPeak, and this one we will name after me, Goodenough Mountain.” It reminded me of the Oregon town named Dufur. The story goes that the pioneers were heading west and stopped at a site. The Lead Pioneer said “This will do for now” and the town name of Dufur was born.
When the trail headed downhill, I regained focus. I noticed that there was a lot of scrap barbed wire and a barbed wire fence, not items I would normally associate with a “Wilderness” area.
A lot of the day was spent on a trail contouring around mountains. It was nice trail and often provided beautiful, lush meadows with panoramic views. This is what I had imagined as the Pasayten.
I met one couple. they were on a ten day trip to Ross Lake. They were stopped at a stream tending to blisters from their boots after just one day. I hope they made it.
I saw a few interesting things along the way. First, the ants seemed to be in a hyperactive mode. Twice I went by large mounds of pine needles where the ants were frenetic. Just watching it made me itchy.
Second, I found another bird, beside the grouse, that does not like to fly. I came across ptarmigan mothers and their young. They are pretty gutsy or unimpressed by humans. The mother produces a low cooing sound. Fun creatures to watch.
Late in the day, I passed an old tungsten mine. A cabin had been refurbished and it looked like some people had occupied it so I did not go in.
There was also a much larger and longer original cabin. I went inside and it was dark, musty, and slightly dilapitated. Im not sure why so many people think carving their name in a historic piece of wood grants them immortality, but they try.
My goal for the night was to reach Upper Cathedral Lake, just after Cathedral Pass, the highest point on the official PNT at 7,550 feet above sea level. The last pass before reaching my goal was very cool. It was called Apex Pass. It was all larch trees. They are unique conifers in that their needles turn yellow and fall off in autumn. I bet his pass was stunning when all the larch are yellow and it is set against the green of neighboring pines.
Coming out of this meadow, I was complaining to myself about losing altitude just to have to climb again for Cathederal Pass. I looked up and saw it. It occured to me that the name Cathederal may not come just from the shape of the peak on the north side. It could be from words that kept coming in to my mind everytime I looked at it: Oh my god! Holy (crap)! God dang. If you’ve seen earlier blog posts, you know I am no wizard with the camera. I could not capture the powerful beauty of this monolith that shot up across from Amphitheater Mountain. What a highlight it was.
I reached the pass around 6:30. I could see my campsite as the lake was visible from the pass. I hurried down thinking it might be crowded. There was only one other camper there.
I snagged a nice place at the far western edge of the lake. I hoped the wind would die down so I could get a mirror image of the pass in the water, but it was not meant to be.
Still, having the rock wall next to me was cool. Except for when some rocks broke loose in the night and tumbled down. That, you might guess, made me a bit nervous, but not enough to keep me awake.
The only other odd note is that as I was falling asleep, two women hiked by conversing. Well, at least I heard two women talking, there could’ve been others, but I was impressed that they were going to do night-hiking in such a place.
Wish I could make this a screen saver.
backpacking over the hill 