The last weather reports we had seen the day before had called for overcast skies today. Poking my head out of the tent, I had to concur. Low clouds appeared to hang just feet above my head. Not exactly what I had wished for.

Andrew and I packed up the camp and drove the 20 minutes up to the Hannegan Pass trailhead. There were quite a few cars there, but a spot right near the trail was open. As my buddy Martin would say, it was total rock-star parking. We grabbed our packs, looked at the clouds that blocked visibility of everything higher than 100 feet above our heads, sighed, and headed on down the trail. We were headed 8 miles out to Silesia camp for the night. I was certainly hoping the clouds would break a little, it’s a little disappointing to go on a ridge hike with sweeping vistas only to be socked in with clouds.

Our first task was to get up and over Hannegan Pass, about 4 miles into the hike. The pass is low saddle between Hannegan Peak and Ruth Mtn. For the first 3.5 miles the trail climbed steadily, but the grade wasn’t bad at all. At that point we encountered a camp. According to the book climbers of Ruth use this camp. We didn’t see anybody around. The trail then began a steeper ascent up the final .5-mile to the pass.

As the pass is fairly low, it’s covered in trees. We passed by 2 guys eating some lunch and continued on down the east side. We would have to drop several hundred feet down to Boundary camp.

Shortly after beginning our descent we passed another group of 2 guys coming up to the pass. After a brief chat we headed on down the trail. About 5 minutes later we found a hat sitting in the middle of the trail. Andrew, who had been moving real well, decided to track down the group we just passed and see if it was theirs. He dropped his pack and headed back up to the pass. I headed on down the trail positive he’d catch up to me.

As I reached the bottom of the descent, about 15 minutes later, here came Andrew. The hat had indeed belonged to them, so score a couple of karma points.

Upon reaching Boundary camp we headed back up, as we were headed up to the ridge. The next 2.5 miles the trail climbs up to the ridge through a deep forest that only occasionally gives you glimpses of the spectacular mountain ranges off to the south. On the plus side though the clouds were dissipating slightly, so I had some hope that they might clear off by later on in the day. Additionally, this side of the pass had ushered back in the return of the blueberry plants. Similar to Olympic NP, they once again almost engulfed the trail.

By the time we reached the ridgeline, we had good views of most of the range, although the tops of the mountains remained hidden. The final 1.5 miles out to Silesia were frustrating. You have to climb up and over and down 3 crests before you get to camp, none of which were particularly easy climbs. The frustration came from the book, which described that section of trail as “up a bit, down a bit”. Apparently I have a different definition of the word “bit”.

Silesia camp is amazing. It’s right on the top of the ridge. The campsites there have a few trees for shelter, but not a whole lot. Views abound all around. Everywhere you look there is another view. I believe we took over 100 pictures from camp alone!

We set up camp and decided we needed to get water. So we headed the .5-mile (and several hundred feet descent) down to Egg Lake. Upon reaching the lake we knew we had made the right choice of camps. Egg Lake is nice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s no Silesia, no way.

After climbing back up to Silesia, we spent time running around and taking more photos. At one point the clouds cleared significantly and we headed off to the east to take some photos. Soon though it was time to get dinner ready.

About that time 2 hikers came on in to camp. They had stood down at the spur trail talking for quite some time. We had wondered what was going on. After what had to be 15 minutes they finally headed up to camp. It was a father and a daughter. We chatted for a bit while getting ready to eat dinner. They had been discussing whether or not to go down to Egg Lake and get water that night. Since they had enough for the night, I think they made the right choice in waiting until the next morning, as they looked pretty whipped.

As I was prepared dinner, dehydrated fettuccine alfredo with crab, we noticed the clouds building in the valley to the north. We watched in amazement as the clouds continued to rapidly build in the valley and soon were approaching us. (view windows media movie of fog approaching from the valley below).Within just a few minutes we were enveloped in clouds. Then just as quickly as the came, they were gone. It was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever witnessed.

Shortly after dinner the temps dropped rapidly, and around 8 PM we were both in the tent tucked into our sleeping bags. Unlike our hike in the Olympics just a week before, I found myself fully zipped up in my bag with the hood closed in around my head. Things were definitely a little chillier here.

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