Skyline Divide — Thursday, Jul. 30, 2020

The forest road is rough and long as previous trip reports say. Take it slow if you're not in a high-clearance vehicle and expect it to take you 20 to 30 minutes longer than what Google says. We saw probably a dozen cars coming down the road as we were heading up (on a Thursday between 6 and 7 p.m.).

The trail is in excellent shape! The first part is by far the hardest because it's just a continuous climb with very few "flat" parts (spoiler: they aren't flat, just relatively less steep than the rest). 

We got to the trail head around 6:45 and got up to the breakout of the woods about 1 hr and 45 min later. We took it really slow as I'm not in the best of shapes currently.

We set up camp at the first spot at the "Ranger's Camp" as it says on my map (the one off the left-hand trail as you break out of the woods). Temps were really great overnight. We barely had our sleeping bags over us. My sleeping pad even had a leak and I was fine (temp-wise).

Sunset was glorious but sunrise was even better.

We got up well before the sun, packed up, but left our packs at camp (in the trees) while we hiked up to the Skyline Divide peak (so says my map), which was at 48.8593, -121.8434 if you're curious. There's a small spot you could set up a tent up there but just be careful as the way is steep and rocky. And I imagine that area is incredibly windy at night so it might not make for the best campsite (great place for a picnic though!)

I was thoroughly enjoying the view of sunrise atop this peak when I turned around and my boyfriend was on one knee holding a little box. He proposed, I said yes, etc. etc. :) 

After all the fuss, we hiked back down, grabbed our packs and made it back to the trail head by 7 a.m. Friday. 

Altogether we didn't see a single soul on the trail once we got out of the woods. In the woods we encountered one party going down on Thursday as we were coming up and on Friday there was one person coming up as we were hiking down. Everyone had masks on. 

For the vast majority of our trip we were alone on a glorious ridge having the best day of our lives — and that's just about as sappy as I'll get. 

The wildflowers will be in full bloom in a couple weeks I'd say, although so will the crowds. ;) 

There was still some snow on the trail as you got out of the woods. Easily walked over or around. No special equipment required, at least as far as we got. Can't say anything for conditions beyond the peak we stopped at.