Our fourth excursion began with a nourishing batch of wild huckleberry pancakes at our starting point, Government Meadows Camp, just outside of the Norse Peak Wilderness area. With our GIS units in their holsters we hiked south along the Pacific Crest Trail exploring and surveying Arch Rock, Airplane Meadows and many other beautiful places. After several days on the PCT we had finished our work in Norse Peak Wilderness and were eager to check out the Clearwater Wilderness just north of Mount Rainier. In Clearwater we scurried up to Summit Lake where we experienced the most breathtaking views of Rainier thus far. For our next adventure we found ourselves back in Henry M. Jackson Wilderness camping in the eerie ghost town of Monte Cristo which was riddled with old, run-down shacks and mining equipment. We hiked out of the town to survey campsites in Glacier Basin, Silver Lake, and Twin Lake. During our stay in Monte Cristo, Alex unfortunately came down with a severe case of mining fever and began to resemble an old prospector. Thankfully the crew was able to subdue his constant ranting about his lucrative future in precious metals and refocus him on the conservation efforts at hand. Our last bit of work for the hitch was on the Bedal Creek and Sloan Peak trails just outside of Darrington. The trails were mottled with mesmerizing mushrooms causing our fast moving marching to morph into merely a meander. It could be said that the fungi fever in some of us was in full force in these fantastic forests and no fix was in the foreseeable future. It was another fantastic hitch with a lot of campsites mapped, agreeable weather and visits to some beautiful and unique places. -Thomas
