Blue-handed
I packed up early and backtracked to a spring to fill up on water and eat some breakfast, taking the opportunity to add some huckleberries to my morning breakfast of cold oats. The air was cold and fresh, but I knew it would warm up once the sun came out.
There were two section hikers (ex-PCT hikers, actually) at the campsite at Devil’s Pass. They helped me find the PNT continuation, which was unmarked and kind of hard to figure out. As soon as I came over the pass, I let out a cry of amazement so loud that the other hikers probably heard me. The massive glacier-covered face of Jack Mountain dominated the view. I could hear waterfalls cascading down the mountain, probably amplified by its distinct amphitheater shape.
I took my time heading up to Devil’s Dome. The mountainside was covered in blueberries, and the picking was good enough that I took off my pack and started picking them into bags. The baby-blue dusty coating rubbed off onto my fingers as I picked, leaving the berries shiny and dark. Two older section hikers from Vermont caught me blue-handed and told me they’d seen a bear just a few minutes before. I wasn’t surprised; this seemed like a bear’s paradise.
After I’d picked enough, I continued upward and took a long break on the 6982’ summit of Devil’s Dome (0712P). This is a popular spot for day-hikers and section-hikers, but I didn’t see anyone. There was a little tentsite at the top, complete with a little stone wall built to protect from the wind. I almost regretted not pushing the extra 5 miles to make it here, but that would have made the previous day a 28-mile day.
The 5000-foot descent from Devil’s Dome all the way down to Ross Lake took about 3 hours. It was long and grueling. Luckily, the trail was dotted with thimbleberries, which gave me an occasional excuse to take a break. My legs started feeling wobbly and unstable in the last half, and it was a huge relief when I finally made it back to flat trail.
The path along the lake was well-travelled and easy to walk on, save for a few sections that had collapsed into the lake in a recent storm. I stopped for a lunch break at the Rainbow Point campground, which had a freshly-built privy complete with toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
The trail led me away from the lake and into the woods, which got thicker and darker as the day went on. My legs were a bit achy from the huge descent and I was experiencing some mild hiker delirium.
I stopped at a stream to relax and filter some water before moving on to the Ruby Pasture campground. I camped alone.
It felt like the Pasayten Wilderness had flown by a little too quickly, but I was limited by the amount of food I could carry on my back. I’d packed seven days of food from Oroville, and I was now down to some oats, gorp, and Cheez-It dust. I was looking forward to my rest stop at Ross Lake the next day, where I’d receive a package of food from my past self and hopefully rendezvous with Bugs and Moose.