Day 8: Swauk Creek Campground to Carter Creek Campground

July 25, 2020

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It feels wrong to complain about the cold after the last couple of scorching days, but it was actually difficult to sleep. We pulled the cords on our sleeping bags tight to minimize air exposure, but the chill still kept waking us up.

Image not found :( — Ready to brave the bone-chilling descent to Cle Elum

We were on the road at 7:00am. What would have been a very fun descent was instead a frozen one. We stopped every so often in sunny spots to thaw our hands and toes. We both wore all the cool weather gear in our arsenals.

Upon reaching Cle Elum, which we know well, our only agenda was to have a snack and rest a bit. We found a park and a picnic table that were on our route.

Once at the trailhead, we spent a few more minutes taking pictures and hanging out. Then it was off to the races. I was excited to finally traverse the side of this trail that lies east of the tunnel at Hyak for the first time.

We stopped at a late (for us) lunch at Easton SP, which was a madhouse, but we found a lone picnic table at which to spread out. On a quest to fill our water bottles, we found yet another available table, and lounged there for a while. We hit the trail again at 2:00pm.

It was nice, but also strange, to see the points in the trail we had cross-country skied so many times before but had never biked. We checked out the first backcountry camping sites at Roaring Creek. Four sites, all quite nice, all empty. We pushed on to Cold Creek. One site was occupied. It looked like there were two other sites. We decided to push our luck and carry on to the next campsites west of the tunnel. The tunnel itself was just as much fun as I remembered it to be the first time, maybe even more so, both because we had good lights, and had ample reason to enjoy the dark and cold after being in the sun all day.

I want a bumper sticker that says "I survived the Hyak tunnel"!

The gentle grade made me eager to reach Carter Creek, so I sped on ahead of Sunyoung. When I reached the campsites, I met Pablo, who seemed to have the place to himself. He was very friendly and helpful. There were sites on either side of the creek. Sunyoung opted for one on the west side. We then discovered that there were two more sites above us, one of which was actually occupied. There are a total of 5 on the west side and 3 on the east side, but only two picnic tables. I think that picnic tables are mankind's greatest invention, and whoever decided that there should be a bunch of them in public spaces should be revered and legendized a la Johnny Appleseed. But that's just one man’s humble opinion.

We had our last camp supper, greeted a latecomer family who took one of the other spots above us, and then holed up in the tent for a well-deserved rest.

Today's ride: 65 miles (105 km)
Total: 428 miles (689 km)

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