Muddy Meadow is large with full view of Adams. Trail is very sandy, like walking on a beach. The dogs running around that generated a lot of dust. I had to walk ahead of others or behind to minimize the dust. The trail is easy to follow. Cross PCT in ~1 hour. Next junction is High Line trail. Right before the junction (as well as at the junction) there's a creek, and a good size camping area. I told the rest to meet me later on High Line trail. So I went through the camp on some use trail, and then bushwhacked out a short cut to High Line Trail. Not recommend this. Toffee, the black puppy, followed me, instead of staying with his mom. They all got worried, when I hiked back to the junction. Foggy Flat meadow is just a mile ahead. A very big and inviting meadow. A small but rushing creek nearby. More stale streams. Part of the meadow is boggy. Thick clouds surrounded the mountain.
After setting up my tent (2:20), waited for others to finish. The clouds were thickening, couldn't see most of the mountain (the right side of the photo in the still white clouds). The forecast calls for 20% precipitation later in the day, and 40% tomorrow. So, we need to get more hike done today. 30 minutes later, all were ready to go. We continued on the trail towards Devil's Garden. 
In less than 30 minutes, the landscape changed from forest to volcanic. Jumbled rocks every where, some knarled white pines. The first Muddy Creek crossing is doable by hopping on rocks. Met a couple filtering water here. They came from Devil's Garden. They informed us that the next creek crossing will require sandals, since the water level was higher than our boots, but still low enough that's safe. My goal is checking out the tarns above Foggy Flat, so I didn't cross this creek. The rest of the group continued.
I followed the west shore of the creek up. Scrambling up and down rock piles, guided by my GPS map. I did find the tarn Priyanka wanted to find. It's on the west side of the creek that goes to our camp, in fact, it's over a rock hill just west of the source of this creek. No water, but green. The ice block is still there. The tarn is pretty. Sandy shore. Not wode enough to camp here. Above the tarn, there are 2 spots that you can pitch a tent, but too windy and rocky. You'd need ground cover and lots of guyline. However, the thick clouds were not encouraging. I took some photos, didn't stay long. 
Walked downhill to look for other tarns. I found 2 more. A bit wooded, muddy and smaller. I had to go through gnarled white pine sometimes. Not good for the trees nor my clothes/pack. After the 3rd tarn, I cut towards the creek. Quite steep to go down on tile-like rocks. At least it was short. 
Then I ran into a group of 20-something in 4 identical tents. Odd looking in the middle of nowhere. One guy told me there's a boot track north of where they were, and going down to the creek is too steep. I did find the track he was talking about, but soon lost it. But Foggy Flat meadow is due north, so just walk through the trees. The hillside next to the meadow had some plump huckleberries. I had to skirt the meadow for a bit in order to find a dry place to walk over. Boggy.Back to the camp around 5:30. Drizzle started. We cooked, and ate, stored the food. Some of us went to bed shortly after 6pm! I went to the creek to wash and refill water for tomorrow. I brought a thin book on Oaxaca Valley, so browsed that sitting on a log, under my umbrella. It got dark quickly after 8pm. Climbed into my tent.
8/26, Sunday. Drizzle. Was full moon last night, but I didn't see it. I didn't get up until almost 6am, already light out. Went back to bed. Around 7:15am, for a brief 10 minutes, mountain showed up its face. We packed up and hiked out. Back to the trailhead before 11.Priyanka decided to visit the same cafe in White Salmon as last Sunday. The dogs had to wait in the cars. Back home early enough to clean my wet tent, and do laundry. It's always good to spend a night in the mountain, regardless of the weather.
