A bit of a late start around 7:30 a.m.(slept in 
) at the TH off Wind River:
I skipped out on a visit to the falls and hit the Upper Falls Creek Trail for the trip up to the horsecamp off road 65. There were clues of fall as I hiked past a nice marshy area where the creek almost comes to a standstill:
The Vine Maple was looking sharp:
The trail crosses and utilizes a few forest road segments as it works its way up to the horse camp:
I passed a few campers at the Falls Creek Horse Camp and made my into the southwestern portion of the wilderness. Not long after entering heaven and I was seeing things like this
According to a study on the Yakama Indians by Washington University, the area called Indian Racetrack was known as Kalamat or Kalameht and means "yellow pond lily" which there are a ton of in the pond pictured above. Quoted from the study, "ey yo nosh was north of KaLahMet, where at KalahMet they held races, gathering of all peoples. Foot races, wrestling, horse races, rock carrying contests" as well as, "kalamát = kalahmet
Literally 'yellow pond lily' [Nuphar polysepalum]. Hunn: Indian Race Track historic site in Gifford Pinchot N.F. Columbia River Indian berry picking and summer gathering site; get year's supply of kinnikinnick here"
Once I hit the racetrack I ran as I fast as I could, pretending to be in one of the races listed above:
I hit the PCT and I was super stoked to see a stretch I hadnt hiked before. I've heard people say there are no views in this heaven but the south side of Berry Mountain has some pretty good ones. Here are a few of Hood and Red Mountain:
Pano:
I dropped off Berry Mountain and reached the Blue Lake junction in good time. I stopped to chat with a few friendly backpackers on my way around East Crater(known as tuk-si-wa-kuch, meaning cup or bucket) with my eyes on Junction Lake for some water. By this point, a nice breeze had settled in and the day was turning out just awesome. I decided to just skip stopping at Junction Lake for a nice break at Bear Lake further north:
Passing a few more lakes and junctions I just stuck to the PCT until I reached the turnoff for Sawtooth Mountain. Nice view of Adams and Sawtooth from the south. Sawtooth was known as "psow was wash kuh" and meant "like a saw" or "saw like"
To get to the top(or atleast close) I used a little boot path to gain the summit ridge where the immense views took over. No doubt about it, I was in heaven
I stopped short of the scramble to the true summit but I was in awe of all that I could see around me. Lone Butte(known as laks-push-ti by the Yakama, means "one hill") stood out in the distance:
Nice views of St Helens and Adams too:
But by far the best views were of Ranier peeking over Sawtooth:
Back down to the PCT and it was time to loop some trails I had bypassed on the way up. The first loop utilized the Cultus Creek and Indian Heaven Trails. The Indian Heaven Trail was gorgeous and offered some of the meadows the area is famous for:
Pretty soon I reached the shore of Cultus Lake where there was a great view of Lemei Rock in the background:
This is where I made one of the first big f-ups in terms of trail junctions in all the stupid long hikes ive done
Instead of staying on the Indian Heaven Trail over to the junction with Lemei Lake, I accidentaly turned onto the Lemei Trail heading east and made it almost all the way to the Wapiki Lake junction before realizing my mistake 
Total derp out on my part but instead of letting it bother me I just ran back to Cultus Lake and righted my wrong Pretty soon I was back on track and enjoying some more amazing meadows on the Lemei Lake Trail:
I took a short break at Junction Lake to enjoy the afternoon and grab some more water for the trip out:
On my way back to the racetrack I passed a plethora of PCT packers looking to make Blue Lake for the night. Some of them looked at me and said, "going the wrong way huh!?". After my Wapiki Lake flub I just smiled and said, "probably"
Back at the racetrack before dark and there were about 5 tents set up in the middle of the meadow
Getting pretty looned up at this point I tried to schwack over to an old road grade near the racetrack that looked to drop a bunch of eg as it headed straight to the west. This would have dropped me down to road 65 south of the horsecamp where I could find my way over to the Upper Falls Creek Trail, probably cutting out a few miles or so. But before I got too involved I just gave up and hiked back to the Horsecamp, picking up the Falls Creek Trail there. I took another nice break just before dark with an orange sun shining through the trees on the Upper Falls Trail:
Saw a few more deer in the dark(eyeshine) as I dropped down towards Falls Creek Falls and the TH. Spooked me pretty good
Not long after I derped out again and took a hard fall, bloodying up my right knee pretty good. Sometimes im too tarped to do much running at this point in the hike but I was able to put together some really solid miles on the long stretch down from the horsecamp. The last several under the headlamp putting me back to the car about 14 and 1/2 hours later. Wow what a day! 
