Day 12 Information
South Puyallup River to Sunset Park - Goldend Lakes - 12 Miles
Monday, September 16th 2002

Ok, it is Monday night at 8:30, September the 16th. I am very tired. I got into camp here probably at 7 or so. I am not sure, 7 p.m. sounds correct though. And, right now I am in my sleeping bag trying to get warm. Today was a very long day. It was 12 miles. I woke up this morning at probably like 3:30 or 4, It think it was, I don’t know, somewhere in there and it was raining and luckily I had all of my stuff in my tent, except for my shoes and sandals and boots, those were outside, but in a plastic bag, so they were fine. They were in a black garbage bag, so they stayed dry all through the morning. It wasn’t raining hard, although there were times that it did rain hard a little bit. It was mostly a light sprinkle. When I woke up at like 8 I think it was. 8:30 actually, I woke up at 8:30. I started putting my stuff together and dreading the fact that I had to go and hike 12 miles in the rain. Only hoping it would stop raining and the sun would come out. I finally got all of my stuff in my pack, and pulled it out and put in under one of the trees. Put my tent down and tried to shake off as much of the water as I could. After I had done that, I put my tent on my pack and strapped every down. I used duct tape and plastic bags, one garbage bag to lay over the top of my pack with 3 or 4 pieces of tape to hold everything on, to keep everything dry.

I hiked from South Puyallup River, up, up, up… it took a while to get up. I think it was two hours… two and a half hours I think. So I got to the top, I don’t know, because I am not too sure exactly where the top was, and I came through St. Andrews Park and saw the small lake there.


St. Andrews Park

I went through Klapatche Park and saw the little mud pond there, which really was just a mud pond. There wasn’t much there even though it was still raining. Oh, and as I left, I had on my shorts and t-shirt, along with my black thin pants and Tysens jacket. After I left I didn’t get very far but I was hot. So I took off the jacket and putting it away to keep it dry from the rain and my sweat. I continued on an a few minutes after that I was compliably soaked. As I passed on farther the brush got very thick on the hillside. Normally it would’ve been just fine but since it was wet my shoes and pants and every inch of my body was drenched. But I wasn’t too cold. I ate blueberries for a while. I kept stopping to eat them because they were so good. I had tried some earlier at the start of my hike but they were not ripe. I ate quite a few. Just before getting to the top before St. Andrews Park it started raining again so I had to get out my jacket. Then I started getting a little cold because I was going down hill. I tried to zip up the jacket but I was hard because my fingers were starting to get stiff. So I put on a pair of those cheap gloves.


Klapatche Park - Nice mud puddle...

I continued on, I passed Klapatche Park – the mud puddle. I only passed two people the whole hike today. I kept hiking down toward the North Puyallup River. It was windy with lots of switchbacks. Then right at my left side I saw something black in the bushes. But really it was nothing. So I took two more steps and as I raised my head coming around the corner I saw a bear just 15 feet in front of me


The Bear I saw - Unfortunatly my camera lense was totally fogged up.

I was scared for a minute, I thought “uh oh, what do I do” We looked at each other for a few seconds then I started to slowly pullout my camera. The bear turned and started to walk away. I was having such a hard time because my fingers were so cold, and the polarizer (glass filter) was fogged, so I had to take that off. But by the time I actually took the picture he was almost gone. The bear wasn’t too large but I wasn’t sure if it was a large baby bear or an adult bear. So as I was taking pictures I was looking behind me to make sure that momma bear didn’t come and attack me. The bear slowly walked off the trail in to the brush. The bear went strait up a hill that was covered in mud. It just dug it’s claws into the mud and went right up the hill side.

I was reading the log book here at Golden Lakes. Several people said that there was a bear hanging out at campsites 4 & 5 on the 12th and I’m in campsite 5 but today is the 16th. They also mentioned a bear at the one of the other Golden Lakes.

After I seeing the bear, it was all I could think about and the stupid rain and fog and wetness. The one day I see a bear my fingers were frozen, and my camera was fogged up. If it were any other day it would’ve been much better. As I was hiking down I slipped on a log that is used to help direct water off the trail. I didn’t get hurt, but it could’ve been bad, being all alone.

I got to the West Side Road about 20 minutes later where I stopped.

As I was there at the North Puyallup River I had a PBJ on Wheat Thins. I was there for about 20 minutes. Then it took me a bit to find the trail, even thought it was correctly marked, but it was a little hidden.

From there the trail went down, then up then flat for a ways. That was at about 3600 ft. Then I started climbing, I had to go to about 5200ft. I found that the book was often wrong. Then I was starting to get cold, I took a few short breaks and then stepped on one of those logs again but this time I landed on the log and it hurt a little bit. I kept thinking to myself “don’t break any bones, it would be a long hike back to the car”

Then my feet started to really hurt because of the previous injury and the fact that they were cold and wet.




Sunset Park




Sunset Park

As I arrived in Sunset Park it was so beautiful. The colors were really great. I took a few pictures but my camera was still a little fogged up. Sunset Park is just a burnt area where the flowers and small trees had just recently started to grow back. I think the fire was about 10 years ago. I was hoping to see the trail that leads to the lookout. But I never saw it. Some people said that the trail was there but it was hard to see, plus someone put about 2 feet of sticks in front of it to hide it. (thanks!)

Once I got here to Golden Lakes. I went to campsites 4 and 5, campsite 4 was taken but they said campsite 5 might be open. It was open, I first sat and relaxed because my feet were hurting and I was cold and just needed a break. I didn’t even take my pack off. I just sat there on a log. Then I set up my tent and put all my stuff in it. But I noticed that my bag cover wasn’t on right and so my daypack was soaked.

I got in, changed ALL my clothes and it helped so much. I put all my wet clothes in a bag and took it to the ranger stating just a short walk away. I hung all my stuff up to let it dry out. After I hung up my stuff I filled my two bottles with water from the lake then I checked my things that were hanging to make sure nothing had fallen down. Then I grabbed the log book and started reading through it.

Then I made dinner, it consisted of mashed potatoes and spaghetti. It tasted good but the mashed potatoes were fairly thick at first. I also had a PBJ with Wheat Thins and I had a bottle of strawberry orange banana drink.


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