I love to backpack. Mr. Sorenson, a teacher at A.C. Davis High School, and I hike the Crest Trail every year. The Crest Trail begins at the border of the U.S. and Mexico, and follows the mountains up through California, Oregon and Washington, all the way to Canada. Mr. Sorenson and I are hoping to hike the entire Crest Trail of Washington State. We started in 1994 by hiking from Chinook Pass to White Pass in the Washington Cascades. It was hard work, but the mountains were beautiful, and we were proud to think that we could carry a backpack 25 miles. Now, each year we try to cover 25 to 35 miles of the trail. Hiking short parts of a long trail each year is called section hiking.

This was our first long backpack trip together. We saw elk and deer and beautiful mountain vistas.

This was our most biologically diverse hike so far. We saw many deer, elk, marmots, pika and mountain goats. Standing high on the slope of Old Snowy at almost 8,000 feet we viewed an incredible mountain panorama with Mt. Rainier standing clear to the north. Once over Old Snowy we were treated to mile after mile of mountain wildflowers on Snowgrass Flat.

Disappointingly, this hike was interrupted by many clearcuts, forest highways and other things to remind us that this was not wilderness. It rained nearly everyday, keeping us cold and wet. The highpoints of this trip were the Viking Burgers we ate in Stevenson where we ended our journey.

The first part of our trail followed the Mt. Adams' treeline, which gave us incredible views of the mountain. The alpine flowers were all in blossom. The wonderful weather of the first two days gave way, unfortunately, to a constant drizzle, dampening our spirits as we headed to Walupt Lake.

This was the most physically challenging hike for us so far, both in length and gross altitude gain. It was long, and there were many, many tall ridges to cross. But, it also provided some of the most impressive scenery, from valley vistas, to waterfalls, to mountain lakes. It's definitely an incredible part of our country. The weather was beautiful. At night it was so warm we slept on top of our sleeping bags. Tor, a young man who hiked with us this year, went on ahead until he spotted a bear. He came back to give us the news.

Mike and I couldn't get away this year for the hike we wanted to do. So, we went back to a spot we had missed in 1995 on our way from White Pass to Lake Walupt. When the last day of that trip turned rainy we decided to take a shortcut to our pickup point. The shortcut left a four-mile section of the Crest Trail that we vowed to do sometime as a day hike. Little did we realize that in order to hike the four miles we missed we would have to walk 16 miles on our day hike! We were also surprised so see that Mt. Adams was visible from much of that section of the trail. On that cold, rainy day in 1995 visibility was limited to less than a quarter mile.

Thursday morning we climbed out of a misty cool valley, where we had spent the night, up into mid-August sunshine. And what a climb it was! More than 3000 feet in just a few miles. Once on the ridge we had views of Mt. Hood. We travelled through forest and skirted a massive lava bed. Taking a wrong turn (it happens) we visited the "Indian Racetrack." When we got back on the Crest Trail it had started to get cold and rainy and, by the time we reached a good campsite at Blue Lake, it was really raining hard. We spent 16 hours in the tent due to the poor weather. Getting up early Saturday we began the last 9 miles of our trip. Surprisingly, we found patches of last winter's snow, as we hiked throught thick forest. Reaching the trailhead at Highway 23 we found scores of Huckleberry-pickers at work on the slope. As we took our packs off the rain began to fall heavily. The Huckleberry-pickers all ran for their cars and disappeared. Wet and tired we set the tent up, once again, to wait for our ride back to Yakima.

We started West on a warm Thursday morning, after enjoying the incredible view from Raven's Roost, climbing constantly until we reached the Crest Trail. It was really hot! By late afternoon we had not found the lake we had been looking for as a campsite. However, as we had reached a spring and the view was beautiful we made camp. That night herds of elk grazed on the hillside above us, occasionally trumpeting in the dark. Deer came down to eat the grass around the little stream that ran past our tent. The next day we hiked another 100 yards to find the lake we had been looking for. We hiked past incredible views of Mt. Rainier, which could be seen over the Mission Ridge area. Happily, we reached Sheep Lake at mid-afternoon and took a long nap in the shade of the trees. A 30-minute walk brought us to Chinook Pass where we waited for our ride to pick us up.

Trail Total through 2002: 277 miles.