Sunday July 28, 18.9mi/30.4km

Parker Mountain campsite (264.1/6640ft) to Lion Creek campsite (283.0/2522ft) (ID)

I watched the sun rise up over the granite peaks, and when it got high enough to shine into my tent, I packed up.

The morning hiking was up on a high granite ridgeline, and the first part was a slab traverse! Fortunately there was a thin trail sliced into the rock.

The scenery in this area is surprising, it looks almost like the Sierra in California.

With alpine meadows for miles…

And of course, no ridgeline traverse is complete without a talus field to negotiate. It was very short, and I had fun with it.

I could see many alpine lakes below me, I think this one is Pyramid Lake.

And I walked right by Ball Lake. This was a nice lunch spot, before I started the 5mi/8km bushwhack.

And then, the bushwhack! This is the first of several bushwhack sections on the PNT, and they are slow going. I expected to average about 1mi/hour, and it was pretty close to that. It started out in pretty open terrain, nice and easy.

And as I descended towards Lion Creek, the vegetation became very thick. I was using fallen logs as passageways thru the bushes!

After four hours of that type-2 fun, I finally emerged onto a nice dirt path at 4:30pm.

I stopped for a nice swim break at Lion Creek slides, a natural water slide in the granite rock of the creek. There were probably a dozen locals there too, as there is a road nearby.

I ended the day on a short roadwalk, and a nice couple from Spokane offered me a ride to their campsite. I went with them, and Brandon and Miranda drove around the state park and gave me a tour! Then, we got to their campsite, I setup my tent, and had the first campfire of this trip!