The Pristine Zone

Phantom Ranch with the Whole Family

2025-11-25T20:29:00.005-07:00

The fact that this hike ever got off the ground was because the universe was on our side. First of all, I had to convince Jacqueline that we could all handle this. Second, I had to have a really good friend that actually worked down at Phantom Ranch. Third, he had to actually be working given that the government was shut down for many days prior to this. Lastly, the weather had to work out. I was checking it for days before and it was looking good. I was even able to see the Bright Angel Trailhead from the webcam available on the NPS website and everything was looking good. The trail looked clear and free from debris. We had been staying with Jacqueline's aunt Kris in Cornville, Arizona just outside of Sedona.

We flew out to Arizona earlier that week and we rented a car. After a rainy day in Sedona which we made the best of by finding a trail to get some running in, we were headed north to the Grand Canyon. The drive was uneventful, but the wait at the entrance gate nearly drove me crazy. Knowing that we only had so much time before the hike started, it was quite infuriating to have to stay in a line of cars a mile long just to get to the trailhead. When we got to the front of the line, the Park Service worker seemed very happy to let us on through without having to pay. We drove out to the Pipe Creek Overlook area where we found a parking spot. Then we were throwing on the overnight packs and were off for a trip down into the Grand Canyon.

The beginning of the trip was unexciting because we were hiking with our full packs on the rim trail which was paved for bicycles. It was great being back in a place where I was familiar. I love the Grand Canyon and living back here would be great. It was at one point where I was reminiscing about the mule corral at Yaki Point when I walked right into the branches of a pine tree which gave me a nice big cut right across my forehead. It bled a little bit and was somewhat painful, mainly when I started to sweat. It just kind felt like a sunburn. We did make it to the start of the trail where we topped off our waters and used the restroom before beginning the descent into the Grand Canyon.

Then it was down the trail. Now, Jacqueline was concerned about the drop offs, but she was pretty happy to see that the trail was very wide. The biggest issue for us was the throngs of people. It was a very busy place with lots of humans to pass both uphill and downhill. I made a few of them uncomfortable with how close that I got behind them, but some people seemed totally unconcerned that we were carrying heavier packs and were headed much farther than them. It kind of remained like this until we got to Ooh-Ah Point. This gave the people a place where they could say that they hiked into the Grand Canyon. This was sufficient to many people, but we kept going. Soon we were encountering many mules.

There were some that were hauling stuff and there were others that were hauling people. There were even some that were doing trail work. No matter what, we had to get out of their way so that the trail was clear. After that it got much quieter. The trail at times seemed to be a place where we had it to ourselves. As we continued down through all the layers, past O'Neil Saddle and going down the Redwall, the views were fantastic. For the most part we were all hiking together with Jacqueline often bringing up the rear when she was taking pictures. Everybody was doing great and I was happy that everything was going so well with the clear blue sky and the warmer than normal November temperatures.

Down, down, down we went and as we were going down the Redwall, we ran into the halfway sign. This is what makes the Grand Canyon feel so massive is that it already felt like we had climbed down a long way and here we were only halfway. The trail continued around until we were pulling into Tipoff. Here I got to relive some stories with the kids and the wife about days on trail crew. A lot of this was like reminiscing to a life that I had lived long ago. I spent my high school years at the Grand Canyon and worked for the Park Service in my teens and early 20s. It was an amazing place to be a young person and it helped formed me into what I am today. Still, there were a lot of stories I am not so proud to tell my truly amazing kids.

As we continued on past Tipoff, we got our first views of the mighty Colorado River. This one large river had helped to carve this massive hole. I noticed that the South Kaibab looked so beat up and I realized this was because the mules had been using this trail rather than the Bright Angel. Personally, I preferred the Bright Angel with its greener surroundings, but the South Kaibab was nice too. The only issue was that there were huge divots all over the trails from the mule traffic. It really could use some work, but I guess we are not paying Park Service people like we used to. The trail continued down and down until the Black Bridge came into view. This would be our crossing point.

I was really proud of how well everyone was doing as the sun was starting to go down in the Canyon. We had spent the whole afternoon hiking down and would be arriving just in time for our friend Tim to get off of work. Tim was a ranger and worked down at the bottom of the canyon. It was the perfect job for him because he was super comfortable with very difficult medical situations and this was sure the place for very difficult medical situations. During the summer, there could be multiple heat related incidents going on here. This time of year, though, it was probably a pretty nice quiet place to have a job. We crossed the black bridge over the river and I filled the kids in about the time I rode a cable car over the Colorado. It was probably one of the scariest experiences in my life.

We walked past the Indian ruins and the boat beach. Then we went past my Dad's old house. He used to work down here running the water and wastewater treatment plant. It was under construction and his house seemed a bit worse for the wear. 28 years earlier, I had spent many great days there. There is nothing like being a high school kid without any other cares in the world to truly appreciate how much this place could shape someone. It had propelled me into a future of loving the outdoors and I longed to spend many more days enjoying this place. We continued on and I was surprised at how quickly Phantom Ranch was upon us. In my memories there was this separation between the Ranch and my Dad's former house, but the campground was right there.

We saw a Park Service employee across the Bright Angel Creek talking to some campers and we waved. We thought it could be Tim, but it was hard to tell from here. We continued on past the bunkhouse and over to the Ranger Station. We took our packs off and sat down at the front porch after determining that Tim was not there. Soon, some other Park Service people came up and we talked with them for a little bit until Tim came by. I was excited to see him. Tim and I worked together at Zion National Park and he had spent many nights staying at our house in St. George. He was very welcoming and gave us the choice of where we wanted to sleep. The Ranger Station was not quite as I remembered it, but it was still in good shape. We stayed where the Interpretive Ranger typically stayed in a room of our own while the kids had bunk beds in another room. After a little bit, we decided to take a walk through the Ranch. I was amazed once again how close everything was. There was the amphitheater and the cabins. There was the dining hall where people could make reservations for dinner. We looked inside, but continued on our way enjoying the creek as we walked the pathway as far as the trail let us go. The North Kaibab was closed at the Clear Creek trail junction, so we had to turn around there. Still, it made me long for more time and more days in the Grand Canyon.

We hiked on back to the Ranger Station where we all enjoyed a freeze dried dinner. Not too exciting considering there was a full kitchen, but I figured it made sense because it was easy to carry and prepare. Tim played games with us and shared stories of all his medical exploits here in the Canyon. He is a great guy and we all get along with him really well. We stayed up slightly later than normal, but not too bad as we were all pretty beat from the workout that we had that afternoon without thinking about the difficulty the morning would bring. The bed was pretty comfortable and I think we all slept rather well at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

We all got up early and tried to get off to an early start. We had dinner reservations in Phoenix that night and I was to make sure that we made that with time to spare. Tim was hiking out on this day also, but he would get a more leisurely start with other things to take care of down at the Ranch. Still, we ate breakfast and snapped a photo making sure to let him know just how thankful we were for his hospitality. Then it was time to go up. The beginning started easily enough walking through the Ranch where we were surprised to run into a deer just hanging out right by the trail as if it was no big deal. We said hi to it and then were on our way out to the black bridge to commence crossing it again.

This was truly a work of engineering genius and for us it was our last respite until the climb. Uphill we would go. Now Zyla, Conrad, and I were all runners and Jacqueline even dabbles in that also. So, this was just another day in the park for us. We really just kept a pretty steady pace stopping every once in a while to get some food in our system and some water to balance out the lost sweat. The whole way up it was mainly Zyla, Conrad, and I hiking together with Jacqueline just a minute or two behind us. We would stop at certain points, wait for her, but it wasn't long before she showed up. In fact, we were doing pretty great getting out of the canyon. It was a crisp morning, but all and all, the weather had been fantastic.

We hauled ourselves up to Tipoff, then we hauled ourselves up the Redwall. Everyone was in good spirits and I think the kids were starting to realize that they were going to do it. It was a real accomplishment for them. Both Jacqueline and I had been down the Grand Canyon before. She had been there on a river trip a couple of times while I had been numerous times, but for the kids this was a first experience and a confidence builder to realize that there were many things that they would be able to do. They were handling it like pros with Conrad right on my tail and Zyla just right behind him the whole time. We passed some mules and many humans, but this part of the trail was actually quite quiet with people every so often, but not too busy.

Even as we got closer to the top, it still was not nearly as busy as it was the day before. As we approached the top, the mules slowed us down just a little bit, but we were able to make it out in under 4 hours which was pretty good. I don't think there was a single group that passed us on the way up, which was always a goal of mine when I hiked out in high school. I was so happy for the kids that we got to make this trip and it was pretty emotional for me to be able to share this with the people I love. This was a special place for me and I was glad that I got to experience it again in a different way with my family. I would have to come back in the future, though, as the Grand Canyon will still be there for further adventures.

Rebel Rock

2025-11-15T15:49:00.001-07:00

I was a little bit nervous about how this hike would go. I knew that the Rebel Creek trail was almost indiscernible last time I attempted to hike that, but the Rebel Rock trail was the other half of the loop. I knew that it was not nearly as impacted by the fire as the Rebel Creek trail. That fire was over 8 years ago, but still the trail had not been cleared since. It was one of my favorite loops to do and I remembered that even before the fire, the trail could be difficult to locate. So obviously, I was a little bit wary about how this was going to go. From the very beginning, I could tell that it was going to go well. It seemed someone had been out here recently cutting trees out and moving debris from the trail. I was able to just hike and find the trail in most places.

The trail went uphill pretty quickly. Even by the road, the switchbacks began. I was right at the end of the cross country season, so I was in pretty good shape. An uphill hike was nothing to me and I spent most of my time listening to Bill Bryson tell me a tale on the History of Nearly Everything. It had become my practice to listen to audiobooks while hiking. I used to be a little bit ashamed as I should be out listening to nature and thinking my own thoughts. Given that I work so much, this was my chance to do two things that I enjoy doing at once as reading and hiking are two of my favorite activities. This was a really good book and also a very interesting hike. The trees were in pretty good shape. There were sections that were burned out pretty good and other sections where it looked pristine. All and all, though, it was an enjoyable uphill hike through the forest. I wondered how long it would go before I would run into an impassable section of trail that would turn me around. It just kept going and going though. The trail took me past one big creek crossing which looked like it had flashed at some point in its recent history. It looked like it would be interesting to hike up the stream on a different day.

It took me through a big meadow that was lined out with flagging. You could tell that someone had done some work on this trail recently. At the top of that meadow, the trail went through a dense wood, than popped out to an amazing view of the Sisters. This meant I was on top and I would then follow that around. As I was doing that, I looked for the old lookout site. It was pretty easy to find with some old pieces of the foundation still intact. This was an awesome lookout when it was still around, but now it was burned to the ground. I looked around for a while and enjoyed the view. It was an amazing day with clear views all around. I could look down and see the ridges and mountain tops for miles. I could see why this was a good place to put a lookout.

Looking over to the actual Rebel Rock, it made me want to come back and climb to the top of that. I would have to do that and also I was hoping that I could connect with the other side of the trail and make a loop out of it. As I approached the other side of that though, the trail rapidly disappeared. At one point I was just in the woods fighting downed trees and fallen branches. I decided right away to turn around. I had already hiked nearly 6 miles anyway and gained over 3000 vertical feet. This was an excellent conditioning hike and I didn't feel the need to fight the woods for much longer. Turning around I really spent some time on the ridge before dropping back down.

This was such a nice day with great views, but it was also the middle of November, so the light would be slipping away soon. So I started back down. This was smooth sailing with the trail work recently done, most likely by volunteer trail crews like the Salamanders or the Scorpions. I continued listening to my book learning new facts and interesting tidbits of information on each turn of the trail. I really enjoyed being out here along the McKenzie as there were always new places to explore even if those places I had been to previously. This felt like a brand new hike as it was much different than it was when I tread this trail more than 8 years in the past.

Beeler Spring

2025-11-09T09:50:00.045-07:00

It didn't take long before I was back on the South Olallie Trail. Given I just hiked this trail a few weeks prior and had run into 3 trails that I never hiked before, I knew that this trail was going to become a new favorite. This time I wasn't looking to hike the South Olallie Trail, but was instead hoping to hike the other side of the Rebel Creek Trail. I knew that this was going to be a tough one because when I hiked the Rebel Creek Trail even before it was burned in a wildfire, I never saw this offshoot. This trail, I was expecting, would be long forgotten. I started early enough that I would not have to worry about the daylight that was becoming significantly less this time of year. It is still quite a haul to get up to this trail with significant vertical ascent over 4 miles. I would estimate about 2500 feet of elevation gain.

Where the trail began was essentially where the Olallie Trail stopped gaining vertically. Here there was a sign and the path looked relatively like a path. It didn't look like it had been used much in the past, oh let's say, 75 years, but it was a path. It was too bad that it wasn't used much because this actually turned out to be quite a nice trail. It was fairly level for most of the way and followed a path that seemed rather easy to follow. With GPS as good as it is, it was not hard for me to stay on the supposed "trail" even though in many places it was hard to find. There were times that I would lose it, but would eventually find my way back to it. There were lots of logs to cross over and debris to go around, but there was also the faint, discernible path that led through a comfortable forest. There weren't a lot of views in this forest, but at times it would peak out to the top of a ridge with a view down to the valley below. I loved this section of the forest because it was just so wild. There were huge expanses of untouched forest to enjoy. There was only one significant feature on the map on this entire section and that was Beeler Spring. When I got to where it should be on the map, I could not find any water. From this spot, the trail began to climb and I lost it for a good chunk of time. There would be giant logs down over the trail that I had to work my way around.

This slowed me down significantly and during this section I was only able to cover 1 mile in about an hour. Eventually, I would regain the path and it would take me to a promontory point where I would have to descend from this point on. It looked like at this point that I was only about a mile and a half from the main trail. The problem was that the trail continued to descend and to become more and more faint. Given the amount of daylight that I had this time of year, I was starting to question whether to turn back. When the trail completely disappeared, I decided that turning back was a good choice. I really wanted to connect it to the other side of the Rebel Creek Trail, but I would just have to come back another day to make this happen.

I could see Rebel Rock from where I turned around. It was the wise decision. As I was hiking back, I was thinking about why this trail had been abandoned. I thought about the old days when horse travel was a common thing to do to navigate in the wilderness. This would have been a thoroughfare used to get to other parts of the forest. When horses went out of style and the forest service started building roads, this became an unnecessary trail. Since it didn't go to a destination, what was the use of it. I thought that to be unfortunate. Sometimes it seems the forest service uses the designation of wilderness as a way to hide behind not having to maintain an area. This section of the forest was also used for grazing 100 years ago. At one point, there were probably sheep everywhere. I appreciated that they were gone, but the trails were probably in better shape at that point.

I decided to really look for Beeler Spring on the way back and eventually, I think I found it. It was a damp spot on the ground with a little bit of cut logs around it. At some point, this probably provided water for horses and sheep in this area. Now, it was abandon and had filled in with debris. I wondered what it would take to bring it back to its former glory days. For some reason, it was put on maps all the way back to the 1930s. This was important enough to be on a map, but not important enough to maintain. Kind of like the trail I was hiking today. I made it back to the Olallie Trail finding it a bit easier to hike back on a trail I had already hiked out on. From there I jogged all the way back to the car. It was almost 4 miles all downhill, but I was in good enough shape to make that happen. It turned out to be a great day and when I tried to research more about Beeler Spring, I was stumped by the internet. So, that is why I named my blog post Beeler Spring. I will probably be the only reliable information out there.

Clear Lake in the Fall

2025-10-18T20:13:00.003-06:00

This is a hike we have done as a family many times, but we can't find another one that is easier to see such nice sights so quickly. The issue is that many others have discovered this same thing, so we are often sharing the trail with many people. This day was no different because when we drove up in the early afternoon to the Clear Lake trailhead, there was not a parking spot to be found. There were cars parked in all sorts of odd places. Luckily, being a local in the area, I knew exactly where to park. I drove up about a half mile up the road and there was a dirt road that intersected the McKenzie River Trail. I parked the car and was the only one there. We continued downstream until we ran into the trail around Clear Lake.

Even though the parking lot was very busy, the trail did not quite seem as busy. There were other things than hiking for people to do, like get out onto the lake in their boats. The real draw were the fall colors that were out in full force everywhere. We enjoyed them a lot especially Jacqueline. We walked south to start and that took us to the parking lot. After a short bathroom stop, we continued down the trail. This was a nice leisurely day for the runners in the family who could use a day off of running. We just walked which was a piece of cake. The trail took us by the outlet where we crossed over the start of the McKenzie River. Then we were back in the trees heading north.

Here the trail got a little rough in places, but eventually it sent us out into the lava flow that made the lake. A couple of thousand years ago, Sand Mountain which is a volcano, erupted causing molten rock to come down and block up the lake. It is so recent, that you can still see stumps and trees in the lake from when it was formed. The trail by the lava flow is in nice shape, though, because this section is paved. This is also one of the more picturesque spots because you can really see the greens of the lake appearing. Then the trail goes back into the woods and takes you right by the Great Spring. Here, you can see where the water rushes out of the large aquifer that is underneath the Oregon Central Cascades.

This is really what formed the McKenzie River as the volcanoes in central Oregon are so porous with their soil that most of the snow melt just goes underground rushing out in these large rivers. The Great Spring looks so cold and so clear that the waters of Clear Lake are some of the clearest in the world. The colors all around the Great Spring were really nice too. The trail continues on from here crossing a couple of very nicely built bridges before running into the McKenzie River trail again. We headed back up the trail the way we came to our car, still the only one parked on this dirt road. It was a very comfortable and easy 5-6 mile loop on a Saturday in October to see beautiful colors and have a great day as a family getting outside.

South Olallie Trail

2025-09-28T22:47:00.000-06:00

Well I had now been off the PCT for 6 weeks, so it was finally time to go for a hike again. I filled my days with hanging out with the family, going for runs, working around the house, coaching cross country, and of course teaching math. I was well in it as the school year already felt long and it was only a few weeks in. I had a successful run at the Walterville Waddle where I placed first in my age group and ran a personal best 19:36 5K. Conrad was right behind me by only 8 seconds. I got a bunch of cookies as a prize. Most of the time was taken up with coaching cross country, though, as weekends included races in which my kids were doing really well. Still, the need to get out on the trail existed and this day I was going to make sure that I got a good hike in. Since last spring, I had been interested in the Olallie Trail.

I had hiked every part of the trail except for the lower section. I was going to remedy that today. My drive took me out to the Aufderheide Rd. This road wound through the wilderness to numerous trailheads. I had stumbled on the southern part of the Olallie Trail about a year and a half earlier. This was spring, so I hiked just about as far as I could before snow slowed me down. I turned around at the snow about 3 miles in, but this day I was determined to not let anything stop me. Besides, it was fall and all that could really get in my way were downed trees. The trail starts out at the end of a dirt road. I parked at the trailhead and went on my way. The first little bit is flat and then it charges up the ridge.

There are numerous switchbacks climbing several thousand feet. This trail is about 40 miles long if you did the entire thing in one day. I have never done that. Instead, I have done it in chunks, first hiking the northern part over 10 years ago into the snow. That part takes you past the O'Leary Trail, then up past Horsepasture Mountain. Conrad and I hiked the section from the Saddle Trail to the 1993 road before it heads to Olallie Mountain and then down to Bear Flat. Today I was planning to hike the southern section from the Olallie Trailhead to Bear Flat. Bear Flat was where I headed off for a loop hike to French Pete once and found myself bushwhacking most of it. All and all I guess you could say that this trail and I had some history.

Today, though, I was determined to finish it and explore other trail possibilities that existed there. The first thing I had to was get farther than I traveled previously. That was done after crossing a creek only about 3 miles into the trail. The trail continued uphill until leveling out right where the trail met the Rebel Creek trail. This trail was really suspect to me and even though there was a sign, I imagined that it was probably a trail to nowhere. I hiked Rebel Creek 10+ years ago when it was in better shape than it is now, and I never saw this part of the trail even though there was likely a junction at some point. It wasn't for me today, so I continued on. The trail was now relatively flat and only a half a mile more brought me to another trail junction.

This was the Wildcat Trail that would take me out to Wildcat Swamp and Bill Gott Spring. This hike was for another day and I continued on. The trail was not in great shape. It was relatively flat, though, and for the most part I could see how the trees had been cleared to get me through the woods. I felt like I was doing the trail a favor by hiking it so it did not cease to exist. There were times I had to climb over fallen logs, but for the most part, I was able to find my way. At one point, I crossed the headwaters of French Pete Creek. Here is was just a small trickle and there was a campsite nearby. It was a place to get water, but it was easily crossed without a footbridge.

As I continued on, the trail took me past a swamp and out to an obvious clearing. Here was another trail, but it lacked a sign. This was the first evidence that the Forest Service had just decided to give up on some of these trails. This was a trail that could take me out to Corral Draw and up to Dillon Lake if I so chose. But, it was on the map, just lacked signage. This meant that it was likely out of service. This was sad because it closed off a huge section of wilderness. I would definitely hike it some day, though. Trail or no trail, I was determined to see what was out there. After this trail, it was only another half of a mile or so before I ran into the junction for the Bear Flat trail. When I had done my bushwhacking long hike here, there was a sign.

Granted, that sign warned that the trail existed no more in sharpie, but the sign was still there. Now it was gone. Another trail bites the dust. The wilderness here used to be invaded by sheep in cattle. There used to be a drive right through these mountains. Now most of this is left to be reclaimed by the forest. Humans really had a way of fixing one problem by causing another. At this point, the wilderness may be a little bit too wild and it could use a little more trammeling. In any case, this was my turn around point. I though about the many opportunities that existed for me to not only explore further out here, but put my stamp on the forest by helping to clear some of the trail.

There were so many sections where trail was a relative word. This forest, like so many other places, was being left to be overrun. I was going to have to put some time into making this place better at some point. The whole hike was about 18 miles, which took me about 7 hours to complete. Along the way I got to see junctions at 3 new trails that I had never explored all going deep into the heart of the wilderness. Two of those still had signs, which meant there was still hope. All of them needed to be explored. I was determined to really know this wilderness inside and out. This day had brought me one step closer to that and it had been a rewarding long hike to keep me in shape also. All and all, a great day out in the woods.

PCT Day 27: Shaw Creek to Hart's Pass

2025-08-12T18:23:00.001-06:00

This seemed to be a theme, but I was up early. I was anticipating the last day on the trail. I waited for it to get light before I started packing up, but I was glad to see the sun. This was the last day, but I definitely had a goal. Two days earlier, I had dropped my quarter when taking a break for a snack. I was now very close to it and I was excited to see if I could find it at that point. It was not long before I encountered the tree and I looked right where I thought it would be. And there it was! I don't why this felt like such a win. This quarter had traveled the who length of the PCT with me and it was now back in my possession. This quarter was one that was left over from the Holiday Farm Fire when the only thing I was able to retrieve was a money box with my coin collection in there. So who knows how long this quarter had been with me. I was happy to see it back in my possession again.

The quarter did not necessarily motivate me to move quickly. I was really not focused on moving quickly. I guess 27 days of motivating myself to get up early and put in lots of miles had finally taken its toll. With only 11 miles to go and my dad waiting patiently for me, I really just worked hour by hour. I hiked for an hour and then I would give myself a long break. Then I would start moving slowly again. The weather was just ideal. Perfect blue skies, cool, but not cold conditions. This was truly the last hurrah as I climbed back up to Jim Pass, then Foggy Pass, and then Windy Pass. Along the way I saw people with that same excited look in their eye. They were nearly done also, but not as close as I.

At Windy Pass, I could see the yurt and soon the lookout on top of Slate Peak came into view. I enjoyed the view out toward the North Cascades and Mt. Challenger was out in full glory. I was almost back, but I had to take one more pit stop before I made it there. Then it was only a few minutes and I was at the upper, upper trailhead where my dad was waiting for me. He thought that I might think this was where he was going to meet me so he brought a chair to wait for me. Then we hiked down the last mile or so to the true upper trailhead. It was pretty exciting to put my pack down and be done. There were some people there who had met a friend with some food and they offered me some. I took it and somebody even gave me a beer. I usually have an allergic reaction, but on this day, I was willing to risk it. It was worth it and it felt good to celebrate the accomplishment. We started the long drive back.

It was down the Hart's Pass road which was long and steep in places, but a decent road that two wheel drive with a little bit of clearance was sufficient. Then it was a long drive after that. I couldn't believe just how warm it was down off the mountain in Mazama. Luckily, I had reached the car by 11 AM, because we had a 6 hour drive back. This drive included the chance to listen to the Mariners game which I missed doing. It also included a stop at Dick's Drive In for some much needed cheeseburgers, fries, and a strawberry shake. That hit the spot. Then we took the Edmonds ferry across to Kingston, where we then drove to my dad's house in Port Angeles. I met up with the family there. Everyone was so excited to see me. My wife really does not like me going on these long backpacking trips, but she still gives me the hero's welcome when I return. The kids were very excited for me and we all just could not stop from smiling. This had been a long journey and it was now over, but I felt very accomplished. Now on to tackle California?

PCT Washington Day 26: Hopkins Lake to Shaw Creek

2025-08-11T08:53:00.001-06:00

There was a lot of anxious anticipation for this day to begin. I was going to finish the Washington section of the PCT. All it took was about six miles of walking downhill with a very minimal pack. So when I was awake before the sun was up, this was not that surprising. I didn't have to pack too much as I just left my tent where it was and knew I would be back later. It was very strange to only be walking around with a small daypack, but I was happy to leave the big pack behind for a short little bit. As I went out to Hopkins Lake, I could see the moon just barely left in the sky after a night of brightly lighting it up. It was peaking out over the hills above the lake. The illumination from it was a brighter sight than the picture made it out to be.

I went up the trail and felt like I was definitely one of the first people on it. It was pretty easy hiking. I was just moving along downhill. I ran into a group near Castle Pass. They were out on their own exploratory hike, but I got some congratulations from the group leader. Really, I was just cruising and each step felt like I was a little bit closer to achieving my goal. I could check my map on my watch, so it wasn't a big surprise when I started to see some signs come into view. Here was the Northern Terminus! I had finished the entire Washington section of the PCT! This feeling of excitement took over my whole body and I just felt accomplished.

I was soaking it all in when all of a sudden I heard a dramatic scream. It was another hiker, one I had not met before, letting out a yell. He was middle aged and his clothes were in tatters. He had done the entire thing from Mexico to Canada. This was an even bigger accomplishment for him, but it did not take away from the accomplishment for me. We chatted quite a bit and we were able to take pictures of each other at the monument. The most interesting thing to me about being at the monument was that the border actually looked like a border. There were trees cut in a wide swath on both sides of Monument 78 up the entire hillside. This was surprising to me as I did not see the point of it.

I lingered for a little while, but my victory lap had to begin at some point. So I bid my new friend adieu and I started up the trail knowing full well that he would catch me in a short amount of time. This truly was a victory lap as I started to see the other hikers going toward the monument on my way out. We congratulated each other and chatted for a little bit at each crossing. I enjoyed the light pack going uphill, but it only lasted so long. Eventually I made it back to the lake where I needed to pack up my entire tent. This took me about an hour which I used to also get a little bit of food. With the big pack back on, I was definitely going to be moving slower, but there was a sense of accomplishment to keep me moving.

Now I got to go back up the Devil's Stairway. This was a little bit more challenging than going down, but also it just didn't matter anymore. It didn't matter how fast I moved. It didn't matter how far I got. All that mattered was that I accomplished the goal I set out to do. This truly was the victory lap. The route was unsurprising as it was the same trip I had taken the day before. I enjoyed the views along Lakeview Ridge. Woody Pass was amazing as I listened to the Tale of Two Cities while going down the switchbacks. I climbed back up to Rock Pass where I got to go down the easy, open meadow that took me downhill to Holman Pass.

The views were just so striking all around. Usually the wilderness experience is about being out and absorbing as much from nature as your body will let you. Today, it was all about just hauling my body and my stuff back to that trailhead at Hart's Pass. I knew I would not make it out today, so I just kept going as far as I could. From Holman Pass, I went uphill and nearly made it to Shaw Creek, but I knew of a campsite before it. There was one other person camping there.

I asked him if there was water around. He said no, but I did not need it. I set up camp and was happy to get into bed as fast as I could. I knew I would not sleep that great because of the excitement of being done the following day, but I gave it my best shot. The campsite was nice. It was forested and pretty close to the trail. Occasionally there were people going by, but there were no bugs which was a bonus. I did not talk to the person next to me much because he did not seem too friendly, but we had our distance anyway. Overall it was a great last full day. I put in about 26 miles and would only have about 11 miles left to go on the following day.

PCT Washington Day 25: Meadows Camp to Hopkins Lake

2025-08-10T13:26:00.002-06:00

This was one of those days that I did not need extra motivation. I awoke earlier than normal, but I still waited until 5:30 AM before I got up. I slept rather well, though, not long enough which seemed to be the usual. I had a little extra food this morning. On top of my usual Clif Bar, I added in a breakfast of ramen. It was necessary calories because this was going to be a full day. I quickly got my gear packed up and then I got a ride from my dad to the Meadows Trailhead. It was just up the road and the place that I had exited the trail the day before. Here I would start the long journey toward the Canadian Border. I would not reach it today, but was likely to reach it early in the afternoon the following day.

The trail started out mostly flat hugging the ridge of Hart's Pass. There were big views all around with mountains and deep valleys. I could see over to the North Cascades with its glaciers and dark, foreboding mountains. I could see Mt. Challenger which was honestly one of my favorite mountains. After about 2 miles of hiking, I came upon Hart's Pass proper. Here there was a small campsite attended to by other people who sounded as if they had just finished the PCT. I also saw my dad's car parked at this trailhead as his day of exploring started from here. In fact, there were a series of trailheads with no less than 3 within a mile and a half. One was an upper trailhead and the other was the trailhead for Slate Peak with a lookout on top.

I passed all of these and I also passed quite a few people on this day. Everyone was in the mood to congratulate each other on a job well done. It was exciting to share the journey with other people and I was proud of the accomplishments that we had made. I also got to share the trail with a different species of squirrel than I was used to. Gone were the marmots who kept me company for so long and instead I had the company of ground squirrel that was very active and very noisy. It was fun to see a new animal this close to the border as animals have not been quite as abundant as I had been hoping to see on the trail. This was a day of passes. Hart's Pass was obviously the first.

The next pass that I was heading toward was Buffalo Pass. There was no sign of buffalo in this area, but there were incredible views. The trail sort of climbed elevation, but was hardly noticeable. Here I was with a lighter than normal pack and of course, my numb foot, but I was so close to the end that nothing could stop me. I enjoyed the big sweeping views that included a strange looking yurt that was really close to the trail. I guess you could rent it, but it didn't look like an exciting spot for a rental.

This put me at Windy Pass where I would take a break. I was soon to leave behind the big views of high mountain peaks and instead I would now be descending elevation into the Pasayten Wilderness. This is where I started to see people beginning to come out with the exalted look of finishing the trail upon their faces. It was such a different feeling as I would be coming back this same way in a few days. They had accomplished something that I was still toiling to accomplish. Their mood and mine were completely different though at the same place and time. The trail descended from Windy Pass going down switchbacks through a forested area. Here is where I saw the small fire that I thought would end my PCT journey prematurely.

This was not currently burning, of course, but was the one on the map that I saw on Watch Duty before setting out from Stevens Pass. It was completely out and had only burned an area the size of a living room in a house. The trail climbed for a bit before descending to Foggy Pass. Then slightly ascending to the unremarkable Jim Pass. From here the trail said I would be on the Devil's Backbone. It was not nearly as dramatic as it sounded and the trail was rather unremarkable except that it did go through some burned out area that looked a little sad. I saw a group at this point and they reassured me that the entire trail was not like this and there were some pretty places ahead. That did not happen for some time, but I made notes of places that I could get water and camp on the way back. Shaw Creek seemed like a good spot for this.

This was about the spot that I decided to take a break. I grabbed some food on a log that allowed my back to lean up against a tree. I thought nothing of it until I had gone for a few miles past. I checked my pocket and my quarter was gone. I had used the same quarter the entire time to open my bear canister and now it was lost. I had another one in my pack, so I wasn't completely at a loss, but I had carried that quarter the entire time. It felt like my lucky quarter. I thought about where I lost it and I knew it had to be when I leaned back on that tree. I tried to make a mental note to get it back when I returned. The trail continued to descend until I was in the deep dark woods around Holman Pass. Here was the intersection with the Pacific Northwest Trail. I knew very little about this trail, but I saw that there was a trail crew working out here. They had a base camp set up right at the intersection with a sign that told us that they had run out of fuel. They asked for any extra canisters to burn fuel. I looked at the table where they were asking for them and there seemed to be a plethora of different canisters waiting for them. I decided to keep my fuel. From Holman Pass, the trail climbed. Along the way was the last reliable water for 9.3 miles which was likely where I would camp.

Water really had not been an issue and it continued to be that way. I never once seemed to be wanting for water. The trail continued to climb and as it did, the views became more and more remarkable. There were large mountains all around me with big sweeping views. I was seeing all sorts of people as I climbed uphill through switchbacks in large grassy meadows. I was even passing a few people on my way up to Rock Pass. On Rock Pass, there was a wide shelf and a big valley below me. This was the first point where it felt real that the journey would be ending soon. I could see so far that I was sure I was looking into Canada. I went down off of Rock Pass and the trail switchbacked against the mountain side.

Here I passed a couple who I spoke with for longer than usual. They were very friendly and they would be camping at Woody Pass. This was my original thought, but as I looked at it, I knew that I wanted to get a little bit closer. It was late afternoon, but there was still time to move. Plus, I had no guaranteed access to water and it was hot. I decided to keep moving and it was a lot of work to climb up to Woody Pass. Luckily, I was listening to a Tale of Two Cities and the dialogue kept me entertained as I pushed through the hot sun toward the pass. This was an incredibly scenic spot and one that I will remember for a long time because of the peaks and scree flows around.

Once I made it up to Woody Pass, it was smooth sailing from here. I was on Lakeview Ridge would take me to the highest point on the PCT in Washington state at 7126 feet. It really did not feel that way, though, as I was encountering the people finishing their treks and taking in their energy. I saw some people looking out into the distance near Woody Pass and you can almost feel them contemplate their future about what was next. As I continued to hike, I ran into a deer which was a rare event being one of only a few that I had ran across on the whole trail. The trail continued to climb until I was at the highest point. There was no sign marking this event and for me the story of the French aristocracy controlling the peasants was what I will remember.

From this high point, though, the trail began a steep descent. This high point would be my last uphill of the day. From here, it was down the Devil's Stairway to Hopkins Lake. The Devil's stairway was a very dramatic name for a bunch of switchbacks. Yes, there was a little bit of exposure, but not much. There was an incredible view of Hopkins Lake and it looked like just what I was hoping for. I could take a dip and then sleep soundly before beginning the last of my journey tomorrow. I dropped elevation until I saw a side trail coming in. This was probably a very popular campsite as it was one of the last water spots on the entire trail before the border. I was a little late getting into camp, so I assumed I might have a hard time finding a spot.

I was right. It seemed like everywhere there was a group. I finally found a nice spot on an open meadow that was mildly impacted. It became my home for the night. It was a quiet spot and there were not many people wandering around anyway. I had put in 28 miles to get here which was likely my longest day on the trail in Washington. I was hoping to finish it off with a dip in the lake, but when I tried, I could not find a way to get in the lake with my sore and numb foot that was not walking over painful rocks. I decided not to risk it. Besides, it was pretty chilly by this point and I decided instead to just do a quick rinse of the legs. I had my dinner and settled in for the last night heading north on the PCT in Washington.

PCT Washington Day 24: Porcupine Creek to Meadows Campground

2025-08-09T08:34:00.002-06:00

I didn't sleep very well. The ground was a little bit slanted and I kept sliding down. It was so exciting spending the night with my dad there on the trail that I didn't care that much. He was up early, so it wasn't tough for me to get up early either. We hung out in the morning a little bit and talked about the plan. He took some of my overnight gear down with him because we were going to camp the following night together at Hart's Pass. That meant that I was nearly day hiking this section. I still carried a bit more than a usual day hiker, but it was nothing compared to what I had been carrying at other portions of the trip. We both got packed up and were on the trail by 6. The rest of the world seemed pretty quiet until I heard the sound of 3 gunshots.

They were so loud down in the valley below that I became a little bit nervous. I hoped my dad was okay. It was probably hunters, but who knew from up above. I spent the morning climbing uphill. The goal was to get to Cutthroat Pass. This was a rather easy undertaking with my light load. The views were incredible. There were high mountain peaks all around me with deep forested valleys below. I ran into a few other people in this area as it seemed like most of the really pretty spots were always filled with more human beings. Everyone was very friendly and happy to be there.

After reaching Cutthroat Pass, the trail went downhill. It was really cold. The wind was sort of blowing and I was in the shade. It was definitely time for the poofy jacket to keep me warm. Once again, I was surprised at how little sweat I was putting into hiking this trail. Morning were often cool and sometimes, like this morning, downright chilly. When I would pop out into the sunlight, I would warm up rather quickly, but this trail seemed to be a series of high mountain ridges and passes. It was downhill to Granite Pass, then back uphill to Methow Pass. After Methow Pass, everything seemed to change quite rapidly. Instead of the big views of high mountains, I was descending into a valley. The valley still had the dead looking trees and this place really looked like a tinder box.

It was now beginning to warm up and I was feeling great. The trail was just slowly descending downhill and I had a light pack. I was really moving well and was easily putting up over 3 miles an hour in this section. There were still lots of people out and about. I was enjoying talking to them. I talked to an older couple who had hiked 95% of the PCT. This was one of their last sections to complete. They were worried that they were not going to finish it because they still had the really difficult section between Rainy Pass and Stevens Pass through Glacier Peak to accomplish. I encouraged them to do it because it was difficult, but nothing that much more difficult than this section. That is easy to say when the trail is in great shape and I am just cruising.

I continued going downhill quickly in the cool morning air. The sun was out, though, and it was warming rapidly. By the time I hit the footbridge across Brush Creek, it was turning into a warm day. To make it even worse, the tree cover was becoming less and less. Here I was at noon and I was at the low point of the day at 4500 feet. I would have to climb up over 7000 feet in the next few hours. I lathered up on the sunscreen and made sure I had a full water supply to charge up the hill. The going was difficult, but I was in such great shape after 24 days on the trail, that I seemed to handle the hills with ease. Here the sweat started to fall, though, and I got a good workout going up the hill, even passing a few people as I went. I made it up to Glacier Pass which was this strange flat area that did not offer me a respite from the uphill climbing. It actually had no glaciers either and was really just a dividing point for the Brush Creek and Slate Creek drainages. I continued uphill toward Grasshopper Pass. Here, the switchbacks became frequent. In fact, from down below, I could see a person hiking over 1000 feet above me. So it was switchback after switchback to climb up to Grasshopper Pass.

On one of these switchbacks, I ran into a trail runner who was on like mile 70 of a 100 mile run. I enjoyed chatting with him for the few seconds and was pretty impressed that someone would venture this far out there on a trail run. After leaving him, I continued uphill until finally making it to the top of Grasshopper Pass. This was my last big climb of the day. Once I was on top, the greenery seemed to melt away and the terrain changed to something I had not experienced on the PCT in Washington thus far. It was very dry and barren. It still had these big views of big peaks, but the terrain seemed almost eastern in its feel. I enjoyed the big views and listened to my mp3 player trying to find a local radio station to listen to.

Now came the job of finding my dad. I wondered if he would be out hiking on the trail to meet up with me. Hart's Pass is the furthest north you can go on the PCT and still have a road. The road was not great, but good enough to get a two wheel drive vehicle to the campground. It was really nice of him to meet me up here and really helped make a lot of my trip possible. I knew there were two possible camping locations he could be at. One was Hart's Pass itself, but there was another campground even closer. He was planning to find a campsite there at the Meadows Campground. I was hoping he would find a site, because there sure seemed to be a lot of people around. This place felt pretty far out there, but then again, there were big views of big mountains all around.

The trail in this section seemed to hug the slopes of the mountains around. I went around Tatie Peak and really enjoyed the section of trail. It seemed rather easy and I was just flying when I started to see the Meadows Campground. I looked for my dad's truck, but could not see it. When I got closer, though, he had put a note on a tree telling me which campsite he was in. I grabbed the note and cut off down the road. I found him at the campsite where I proceeded to find a nice spot to sleep, ate a lot of food, and lost a couple games of cribbage. We hung out for the evening, but the exciting part was that I was beginning the final stretch tomorrow. While I had enjoyed my experience on the trail, there is nothing more rewarding than completing a goal and I was oh so close.

PCT Washington Day 23: Bridge Creek Camp to Porcupine Creek

2025-08-08T19:12:00.001-06:00

I was up at the crack of dawn just to make sure that I wouldn't have to worry about my lost permit. This was just easier to get on the trail while most everyone else was still sleeping. The morning was quiet. The trail was quiet as I followed Bridge Creek. I was once again enjoying the nice conditions. This trail was clear of all debris. It was even brushed out perfectly so I didn't have to even worry about touching the vegetation. It was easy going except that it was all uphill. Yesterday, I spent the whole day going downhill. Today, I got to spend the whole day climbing uphill. I was starting at about 2200 feet and would end the day at about 5300 feet. So the climb was not crazy. 3100 feet over 15 miles isn't bad at all.

The trail here was so much different than most of my hiking on the PCT. It felt more like Eastern Washington than Western Washington. The trail was dry and almost dusty in places. The terrain was more open with big trees still, but not nearly as much underbrush. I was moving pretty fast because I was down to the last days of food that I had to carry. I was meeting my dad at Rainy Pass and he was coming to camp with me for the night 5 miles up the trail at Porcupine Creek. I was pretty excited for that. I had been in constant communication with him due to my inReach device. He had left his house at 6 AM and we would meet up eventually at the pass. For now, though, I was trudging along uphill. The weather was getting warmer quickly and those wet shoes were no longer a problem. Still, the sore/numb foot was an issue. I really did not have a choice but to keep on keeping on with that one though. It stopped bothering me after a little bit anyway and since I had switched back to my original insoles, it wasn't getting any worse. My Achilles were a little bit more so now that I did not have the inserts, but they still loosened up after a few miles in the morning. Nothing as bad as what I experienced in Oregon.

I had crossed the water two times. Once near the North Fork where the bridge was in great shape and another at Maple Creek where I had to hike uphill in an odd way to get to the bridge. Either way, it was an easy trail and soon I was starting to see the weekend warriors moving in. I always felt a little awkward when there were people fresh from the city and here I have been out for many days. They smelled so clean and fresh. Who knows what I smelled like? My beard, too, was probably so awkward looking, but whatever. I didn't feel that self conscious until I got around busier areas. This was definitely becoming a busier area. I passed Six Mile, South Fork, Hideaway, and Fireweed camps.

From there I was able to leave North Cascades National Park and soon I was right next to the road. This part of the trail was actually pretty quiet because most people parked at the Bridge Creek Trailhead. Once I was beyond that, it was quiet for the mile and a half until I got to Rainy Pass. Here was the mass of humanity. Not since Cayuse Pass were there so many cars in one place. The only one I really cared about was seeing my dad and his car. I saw him across the road as soon as I came out of the trail at about 1:30 pm. It was great to see him. We talked about the hike and his drive as we went to his car. I spent an hour or so, repacking as he was my resupply point. I even got to throw down a bunch more food while I waited as he had some snacks for me.

Eventually, I got myself ready. This was actually going to be pretty easy. I only needed to take enough food for tonight and the next day as he was planning to meet me further on up the trail at Hart's Pass the following night. I brought only enough stuff for this one night of backpacking. We still had a bit of a hike as it was 5 miles to where we were hoping to camp. It was mostly uphill as the trail switchbacked through the dying forest. We wondered about the trees together with drought and beetle kill being the dominant thoughts. Dad was great company and it was nice to have someone to talk to. We finally arrived to where we were going to camp and there was a friendly gentleman there that offered to let us stay at his site because he said the rest of them were full. I was skeptical of this, though, because I hadn't had trouble finding a site previously. I wandered around a little bit and found lots of sites back in the woods. We picked one. Unfortunately, I picked a spot that was on a slope which would make my sleep a little bit poor. We camped at about 4:30. We ate dinner. Played some cribbage. Eventually, though, the bugs became so annoying that we had to go hide in our tents. We still were able to chat for a bit, but we read our books and enjoyed the outdoors and each other's company.

PCT Washington Day 22: Suiattle Pass to Bridge Creek

2025-08-07T09:38:00.002-06:00

I thought that when I went to sleep, I would awake in the morning to a bright sun shiny day. Unfortunately, that idea was sort of turned on its head when I heard it start to rain at 3 AM. I dreaded the getting up part that would happen in two hours. I was half awake and half asleep with the rain keeping me company, but when it was time to get up at 5 AM, the rain abruptly stopped. Still, it was very cold and the mosquitoes that were around the night before were now few and far between. I put on my soggy shoes and then it was time to start moving. This was definitely a day that I would be hiking with my poofy jacket. I didn't make it very far before some "whole thing" thru hikers flew by me. They seemed intent on making as many miles as they could as fast as they could.

I was happy that they flew by me because I needed a pit stop. After that brief break, I was just flying. The great part about getting to Suiattle Pass was that I could spend most of the day just cruising downhill. If it was a little bit warmer and a little bit drier, this would be the perfect day. It was funny, though, because in Oregon I spent so many days dealing with the heat. In Washington, I was definitely using my cold weather gear more often. I had a little bit of rain off and on too just to remind me that I couldn't expect to get dry too soon. I also got to manage more blowdowns. They were still quite frequent and it made for a difficult hike even with the trail being downhill. The scenery was pretty awesome, though, as I was in this huge mountain valley.

Each step further downhill, made the mountains seem to rise to impressive heights all around me. I had been hiking for a couple of hours when the forest seemed to change. There were still blowdowns, but now the needles seemed dead. There were big trees standing straight and proud, but the ends of their needles seemed to be brown. There were also little trees with the same issue. Having been around beetle kill in Rocky Mountain National Park, I figured this was something similar. When I asked other hikers if they knew, I got everything from disease, to drought, to insects, so I am not entirely sure. What I did know is that I was happy that the day was nice and cool because these trees looked like a tinder box ready to explode. The trail continued downhill and I had hiked about 7 miles when I came to the South Agnes Creek ford. This turned out to be the hardest ford on the entire trip. I could have easily crossed the creek getting my feet wet in the process. Considering that they were just beginning to dry out, I did not want to do that. Instead, I found a log and began to walk across it. It was rather narrow and about the middle of the creek, I realized that this long was pretty far off and I was risking serious injury by making this crossing.

If I fell here, that would have been a bad decision. Considering the numbness in my right foot, I should have thought a little bit more. Still, I made the crossing without issue and I lived to continue on down the hill. It wasn't much after this that the trail suddenly became better. There were instantly no trees down. It was brushed on the sides. It felt as if I was flying because I wasn't having to climb up and over something. I can't say for sure whether I enjoyed this more or less, because having some difficulties to encounter does make it feel a bit more adventurous, but what I do know is that I could kind of take my mind off the trail for a little bit and just hike. I was listening to Audible, and that made the time go by faster.

It wasn't that I necessarily loved the book I was listening to, but I felt like I had the ability to focus on it a lot more without obstacles coming my way. The forest was awesome. There were big trees around including a few cedar trees that just had a massive base. This was a very pleasant forest and became even more so the further I went downhill. After starting at 6000 feet in the morning, I was going to end up below 2000 feet at Stehekin in the evening. For all of the twists and turns I had taken getting around Glacier Peak, this was just a straight shot following the South Fork of Agnes Creek for many, many miles. The people I talked to on the trail seemed much more pleasant and excited than they had seemed days earlier. I was beginning to meet more people just starting their journey as Stehekin seemed to be a destination that many backpackers were using as a starting out point. They were excited for their journey and I was getting a lot of congratulations for almost being done with mine. At this point, I was finally feeling as if there was nothing that was going to stop me and I was just going to have to gut out anything that could stop me for another week or so. My foot pain was ever present, but I knew I would recover from that eventually.

Instead, I just got to enjoy the lovely river as I hiked along. Occasionally, I would stop to take it in. If it was a warmer day, I am sure that taking a dip in the cool waters would have been inviting. It was definitely beginning to warm up, but not nearly enough that a swim in a glacial creek seemed like the right idea. I continued downhill and the gorge just seemed to get deeper and deeper. I figured out the allure of Stehekin. Here you had this low mountain valley surrounded by these tall peaks that rose thousands of feet from the valley below. It was very similar to hiking in the Grand Canyon where you just keep getting deeper and deeper and the cliffs seem to stay the same height.

Soon, I was crossing into Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and the paranoia started to take over a little bit. I had received a long distance permit from the PCTA when I started my trip. After my first stop, though, I had apparently tossed it out. The only place on the whole trip that I was going to need that, was inside North Cascades National Park. The time I was going to be in North Cascades National Park was very small as for the most part I would be in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, but the place I wanted to camp, Bridge Creek, the permit was necessary. I decided to just risk it. I didn't really feel like I was breaking the rules because I had intended to follow the rules, but I was going to have to be a little bit more stealth.

The trail was even better as I got closer and at about 4 PM, I was crossing the river into North Cascades National Park along a beautiful bridge. Just getting here, I had already hiked 19 miles this day. My feet were sore. More so, my right foot, but even my left was a little sore from having hiked with soggy feet most of the day. My shoes were getting better, though, as the sun and the drier, lower elevation was helping to wick the moisture away. After crossing, the bridge, I used the bathroom in the campground, then after a little bit of wandering around, I was able to locate the trail. To Bridge Creek I shall go. It was only another 5 miles of hiking to get to Bridge Creek, but it was uphill after a day of smooth sailing.

The trail was in worse shape and seemed almost dried out. There were horse droppings everywhere as this seemed to be a popular spot for horseback riding. It felt almost urban and for many people, this was a necessary stop along the PCT. For me, though, I just wanted to be back in the wilds. The trail took me by Howard Lake that seemed to be filled with lily pads. This looked like a very pleasant spot and was probably a popular day hike for people coming up from Stehekin. The PCT followed the Old Wagon Trail which you could see the wideness of the trail at places was meant for something larger than a hiker. It felt like Bridge Creek was farther away than it should be when I finally rolled into camp at 6:45 PM. I took the first campsite that I saw with a picnic table that I later learned were reserved for the more prestigious guests, not PCT hikers. I didn't find that out until the morning, so I just went through my normal routine of setting up the tent, getting my comforts ready for bed, making and eating my dinner, filtering water, and finally laying down my weary head for the evening. I was tired and I wasn't even bothered by the smell of the bathroom that occasionally wafted into my camping area. Instead, I got to sleep early as usual with the nights starting to come a little bit sooner each night.

PCT Washington Day 21: South Fork Milk Creek to Suiattle Pass

2025-08-06T17:29:00.000-06:00

There is something altogether uneasy about being asleep in a tent and hearing the sound of raindrops hit the tent. Even if the rainfly is working sufficiently and the gear and the people are staying dry, there is still the feeling that it is only a matter of time before the morning will come and the weather will be upon you. That in all your efforts to keep yourself clean and dry, you shall be thwarted and the day will be spent with soggy feet and damp clothing.

That was today whether I liked it or not. Getting out of the tent at 5:00 in the morning, I could see the European couple near me finishing their packing. I would see them not far down the trail. The weather was not particularly horrible, it was just wet enough to make everything just a little bit miserable. The rain was coming down, though lightly, it was enough to make things rough. The worst part about it, though, was that I was going right by the junction for Grassy Point Trail. The terrain was such that each step that I took made my shoes just about as saturated as they could possibly be. There is nothing you dread more in rainy conditions than a meadow because there is no tree cover to protect you or the ground either. Though beautiful on a sunny day, meadows make conditions much more challenging. On the bright side of things, though, since I had camped at high elevation, this gave me an easy morning. I would be spending the next nine miles dropping elevation down to the Suiattle River and then I would spend most of my day walking next to it. This meant that my grassy meadow would begin to turn into thick bushes again. These thick bushes were just as rich with salmon berries as the bushes yesterday and I made sure to get my fill of fresh morning fruit. Then it would go downhill some more until I was in thick forest.

This would be great if it wasn't for the blowdowns. This is the northwestern portion of Washington, so these blowdowns were not small trees. Sometimes it would take a lot of energy to get up, over, or around these trees and then hidden behind the first was just another and another to climb over. With a big pack on and a sore foot, this was a task that I was starting to get frustrated with. I would estimate that I had gone through hundreds of blowdowns when at 10:30 AM, the suddenly stopped. It was like a miracle, but really it was just the upper limit of where the trail crew had reached. I spent the next several hours walking by the Suiattle River feeling like I was making incredible time.

As I continued to lose elevation, the forest definitely changed quite dramatically. I would go from 6000 feet in the morning to below 3000 feet when I crossed the Suiattle River at noon. Though the weather was still wet, it was definitely a bit warmer and the morning had been relatively easy compared to my big day the previous day. I was hoping that the rain would stop, but I was ungraciously rewarded each time I thought this could be it with a stronger shower that would refreshen the dampness through my body. Crossing the Suiattle River was a big deal though, because this meant that the trail was going to lead me away from Glacier Peak and toward the Stehekin area which I was excited to see tomorrow.

For now though, a beautiful bridge took me across the large glacier charged river and now I would be walking uphill again. At first, this was not much as the trail was sort of up and down and mainly by the river. I was surprised today how very quiet the trail was. I was barely seeing a soul out here. I knew the rain would detract from people coming in from other places, but even PCT hikers may have been hiding out on this day. When I talked to some people about this day later on, many of them did spend the day in their tent. I couldn't imagine doing that just to stay dry. I was still enjoying this day, but it was definitely one that I was happy to put some miles behind me as I continued up the river.

After about 14 miles hiking on the day, I came to Miners Creek where there was a very detailed and fantastically created bridge. This sort of marked the end of my flat hiking and was the unofficial end of the clear trail. After this the blowdowns were back to make the end of my hiking day a workout. Instead of following the Suiattle River, I was now following the uphill path of Miner's Creek. This would take through many switchbacks and even a burned out area from a recent fire, probably only last year. The forest just felt so dark and cold. It was a little lonely and ominous at this point too and with more blowdowns to go over, resulted in what felt like an almost melancholy type mood for the day. Still I continued on uphill.

The goal for the day was to make it to Suiattle Pass. It felt like I was going to make it there, but how was it going to be once I made it there? Would I just spend a night in the wet and cold. As I walked through the clouds, I began to notice a shift in the weather. Climbing uphill, the temperature was dropping, but I was also starting to come out of the wet, damp, fog of a cloudy day and the sun was beginning to peak its head through the clouds. I hoped for some excellent scenery as if it was going to be a rainy day, at least I wasn't missing out on the mountains that are around me since I was in the forest anyway. I came to the second junction of Miner's Creek where I saw a very nice campsite. It was still early in the day and I just could not get myself to give it up here. There would be sufficient water, but it just felt like I needed to get to Suiattle Pass to feel like I was making it out of the valley surrounding the Suiattle River. After leaving Miner's Creek, the trail became much steeper with switchbacks frequently. After passing another opportunity to camp with the junction of the Miner's Ridge Trail, the views really opened up and I even experienced something that I had not seen all day. Sunshine! From someone who had been outside for many days in a row now, this was the most that I appreciated it on the whole trail.

It still was not warm, but at least it was not wet. I continued to climb on and on until finally reaching Suiattle Pass. Here, I looked for a campsite and there was one right at the pass, but there was no water. So I continued further. I had already hiked around 21 miles and 22 seemed to be my daily average. There was one marked on the map and sure enough when I got there, there was even a sign saying camp this way. I followed it and there was a nice big open site for me and me alone. I quickly settled in, set the tent up, and got my wet clothes hanging up on the clothes line. I was pretty doubtful that anything was going to completely dry in this weather, because although it was sunny, it was still cold and rather humid.

I was fortunate to have water at my campsite, but I was also unfortunate to have mosquitoes. All day long I had battled the rain, which at time dumped torrents upon my head. Now that I was in camp, the mosquitoes did not allow me a great amount of time to enjoy the sunny conditions and after doing my camp chores, I was soon hiding away in my tent. There was not anyone to talk to on this day anyway except I could have had a conversation with the unhappy hiker who had to look for another site after wandering into mine looking for a place for himself for the night. When I heard him, I was unaware if it was an animal, so I got out to see a human with a backpack scampering away. I was happy to have my nice dry tent, but I knew that tomorrow would be spent with more wet feet as the sun quickly sank below the level of my campsite, so it was not out long enough for me to enjoy it or for it to get any of my gear dry. Oh well, I will continue on regardless.

PCT Washington Day 20: Baekos Creek to South Fork Milk Creek

2025-08-05T18:23:00.001-06:00

I slept very peacefully and almost through the entire night. The temperature was perfect. My campsite was quiet and I just slept like a log. I was waking up now and moving pretty early, so that was not a bad thing. The weather was still overcast and the thought of fires being on the trail was now a thing of the past. This was going to be the day of the worst blowdowns, so I was prepared for a long one. It started almost immediately. There were constantly big trees to get around. The trail was downhill for the first mile to get to Chetwot Creek. It just felt so dark and ominous, but it wasn't quite wet yet. I crossed Chetwot Creek on an old bridge and then there was a fairly easy ford around Sitkum Creek. It was Kennedy Creek that I was worried about as the footbridge was broken likely to never be replaced.

It looked like a large drainage on the map and when I got there it felt even bigger. You could tell that a large glacier used to make its home here which now had turned it into a large river. Whatever bridge used to be here was probably broken beyond recognition never to be seen again. The lucky part was that once I got there I quickly found some logs to cross. It is sort of a funny decision though because either it goes smoothly or my whole trip could be ruined pretty rapidly. I got myself together and made the crossing. Even on my numb foot I could still be very careful. I balanced the logs and soon found myself on the other side of the river with all of me and my belongings dry. My reward for that was a trip uphill in the woods through the pouring rain crossing many deadfall trees. These weren't just little guys either. These were old growth forest with massive logs coming down.

When I wasn't crossing blowdowns, I was dealing with huckleberries growing right over the trail. Huckleberries, especially the blue kind, have the ability to retain a lot of moisture until you brush up against them with your leg. As soon as you do, though, it goes rushing down your pants and into the top of your socks and shoes quickly making damp feet into wet feet. There was no avoiding it on this day. I was just going to have to accept the wetness and keep plodding along uphill. The goal today was to make it up to Fire Creek Pass. Once I made it there, I knew I was going to be able to go downhill after that. I sure had to work for it though as the trail seemed steeper uphill than most of the rest of the PCT had been in Washington. I kept myself entertained and luckily I had a lot of energy for it. After a while I started to find my way out of the forest and into some more open meadows. It still seemed pretty brushy and the wildflowers were very thick. This portion of the trail traversed around the slopes of Glacier Peak and what was unique about today was that I would be spending the entire day on one section of my National Geographic map. Usually I would cover one, two, or three map sections in a day. But this was so much of an around the mountain trail, that I would never leave page 10 at all today.

Every little piece was a win, though. When I got to Glacier Creek the trail continued to climb until I reached Pumice Creek. Then the trail sort of flattened out in the way that it went downhill, then uphill again, so not really flat, but more evenly distributed. It opened up in places and eventually the rain stopped and revealed some pretty nice landscapes. The weather got significantly better as the day went on, but since I started the day with wet feet, that was how I traveled through it. Pass Pumice Creek, the next big landmark was Fire Creek. This announced to me that I would be going uphill again. At the morning, I started at around 4000 feet. Fire Creek pass was at 6300 feet, so I was going to have to work for it. I put in the miles and was rewarded with some amazing views.

Getting on top of the pass was pretty monumental. There were 360 degree views. There were mountains to the north, mountains to the west, and Glacier Peak to the east. Behind me to the south was the journey I had taken to make it to this point. The sun even made its appearance and I felt new life return to me. There were times where I was even able to sneak peaks of Glacier Peak showing its face. From what I had heard, it was not the most difficult mountain to climb, just difficult to reach. I truly appreciated the pleasure of being out here where not many people would actually go. This area was just as breathtaking as any other National Park, but since it was so hard to get to, not many people got to experience it.

I enjoyed some lunch which was still beef jerky and dried mango. I was getting really thin at the same time my beard was getting rather shaggy. Fire Creek Pass would be a fantastic campsite to spend a few days at just enjoying the peaks around it. You could climb one or two and really have a great campsite. I could not spend too long there, though, as I still had a full day ahead of me. It was time to keep going. From here, the trail went downhill. It started out incredibly open with just some fantastic views. Every few minutes it seemed like another piece of Glacier Peak would show its face and I would get excited to see it. Here I was, right on the doorstep and I could barely see the mountain because the weather had been so cool and wet.

This was obviously not something to complain about as I would take the cool weather over the 90 degree days and fire danger at any point. As I wandered on down in a round about way, the views just seemed so amazing all around me. This was definitely the day where I seemed to take the most pictures without many of them being able to be shown on this blog. The highlight of this day had to be Mica Lake, though. Here was a mountain tarn that was just about perfect. If the weather had been warmer and it would have been closer to camp time I would have taken a dip. The depth of the blue in this lake was so very striking and here I was enjoying it by my very lonesome.

I didn't stay long, though it felt like a place I could hang for a very long time. There really were not a lot of people around on this day. I saw only a handful in this section as the south bounders were really starting to fizzle out and all that was left were section hikers like me. The trail continued going downhill and soon it would become very brushy. So on top of the downed trees to climb over frequently, the trail was now almost completely engulfed with salmon berries. The one benefit of this was definitely salmon berries as I ate like a pig. They were ripe, red, juicy monsters that provided me with a few extra calories while I walked. I met another couple that were obviously European and they were enjoying them also. I actually passed them which was strange for me because they were doing the whole thing and I passed them. That never happened.

Down and down I went until I found my way to a beautiful bridge. There is nothing like coming out of a brushy mess with slippery roots and whipping branches to an absolutely well built beautiful bridge. I was actually a little bit nervous about crossing Milk Creek as I thought the bridge was gone. What turned out happening was that the bridge was gone, but this bridge was on another trail and the PCT had been rerouted to meet up with this bridge. This put me slightly off the traditional path, which actually led to my wife contacting me on my Garmin inReach Mini to let me know I was off the trail. I assured her that was not the case as there was nowhere else to go in this sea of vegetation.

For all my hard work finally getting across Milk Creek, my reward was to go up a massive amount of switchbacks through extremely brushy trail. There was even a set of tools left at one point that if people wanted to, they could use their energy to help brush out the trail. I was happy to leave the machete and loppers for another brave soul as I continued to fight my way up the haphazard trail. It got a little better once the reroute was accomplished, but it still took a lot of energy to force my way up those switchbacks with the occasional deadfall to keep me on my toes. The views got better and better as I got higher though and after a little while, I was lucky enough to get a full view of Glacier Peak.

This day was starting to crawl to an end. I was feeling good, though, and really I just kept going uphill. As the clock approached 5 pm, I was ready to find a place to camp. I was lucky because this area was one of the most beautiful and most peaceful of the places that I had hiked all day. There were big views including those of Glacier Peak. I needed some water, though, and when I finally found it, I was near the headwaters of the East Fork of Milk Creek. I filtered some water and then looked for a campsite. Luckily, one appeared right around the corner. It was almost on an island in the middle of this huge mountain drainage with streams flowing all around me.

The first site I tried seemed so impacted that the soil was fluffy. As I walked on it, it poofed out in little clouds around my feet. I figured I could make it work, but when I put up my tent, I realized I would be inhaling dust all night. So I looked to the other side of the creek I was camped near and saw a less impacted site on the other side of the creek. I decided to carry my tent over there and this turned out to be a much less dusty site. My original site was taken later by the European couple I had talked to earlier. I was pretty tired, but still went through with all my camp chores. In the end, my watch said I had climbed 499 floors which is about 5000 feet in elevation. This was my biggest day so far, but my reward was this beautiful mountain meadow to spend my evening in. This was a challenging day, but I met it with excitement and this was truly a fantastic day out on the trail.

PCT Washington Day 19: Saddle Gap to Baekos Creek

2025-08-04T20:13:00.001-06:00

I was in the habit of waking up early, so now I felt like my body was used to it. I had a good night sleep, but my body felt tired when I woke up. That was interesting because I felt so good the previous day and today I was feeling kind of flat. When I got out of the tent, I was greeted with foggy conditions. Up here in the mountains, it really just felt like I was right in the middle of a cloud. I left my beautiful camp site and headed uphill for a short distance before I made it to Saddle Gap. From there, it was downhill to Pass Creek. So far, I had run into a few blowdowns, but the trail was in very good shape. I was a little concerned about it, but had only had to deal with a handful of blowdowns so far. Most of the time, though, the trail was in very good shape.

I ran into a couple who gave me the low down. They said the trail was pretty good all the way to Red Pass, but after that, there would be lots of blowdowns. The forest was feeling a little bit more wild.
I came to a junction for the Pass Creek Trail and after that, I spent a long time climbing uphill. The climb first started with some time in the forest, but quickly morphed into more open scenery. The day was cool and I was keeping the poofy on for longer than normal on this day. The trail zigzagged up an open bushy hill. I just kind of plodded along like usual eventually arriving at Lake Sally Ann where there was a group of people hanging out. I assumed that the trail would be rather quiet today, but I was wrong. I saw many people.

Some of the people seemed unconcerned with my presence like the guy who was probably slightly older than me that came up behind me. He seemed to pass by with barely an acknowledgement of my existence. Another group I talked to for quite a while. The guy had a PCT hat on so that helped us strike up a conversation. He seemed really interested in my hike and wanted to be out there doing it himself. I encouraged him because I was definitely enjoying myself. Those were always the people I enjoyed were the ones enthusiastic for the experience. The trail was rather flattish after Lake Sally Ann with ups and downs, but really just lots of open country with what would be big views without all of the low clouds.

Still, I was happy that there was no rain and all I was dealing with were cooler conditions. It made the hiking easier and a bit more enjoyable. What was not enjoyable was my foot. It was getting sore again after the one day of rest. I knew it would continue to be a problem until the end. It felt like I had an extra large foot in my shoe even though my foot was not swollen at all. There was definitely some numbness, but it didn't affect me too much, so I just continued on. The ups and downs of a few hundred feet here and there continued until a downhill stretch that would take me to Indian Pass. Here was a nice big open area that met up with the Indian Creek trail. There were so many trails coming in from so many different parts, I wondered how accessible these areas were given that it really felt far away from any roads.

Along with the groups of people to keep me company, there were also many marmots. They were here and there and everywhere. Some hid when they saw me. Some came out of their holes to squeal. Some watched as their children played in front of them. This was the day of marmots and it was definitely the right habitat. I even ran into a fellow PCT hiker who was just sitting there watching the marmots as I made the long trek up from Indian Pass to White Pass and then continued on up to Red Pass. He seemed to be 20 years older than me at least and was really just enjoying their playfulness. He told me his name was Woodchuck and he called the marmots woodchucks. I enjoyed that I actually got to pass somebody, because that was a rare occurrence for me. We talked for a bit, but I had a mission and that mission was switchbacking my way uphill.

I would have loved to say that the clouds peeled off and I had a great day full of big views, but that would be a lie. I got a short reprieve for small sections of my afternoon where tall, scraggly peaks would show their rough edges for short periods of time. Those peaks would be enclosed within a short period of time and soon I was back in the clouds. This was ever more apparent as I closed in on Red Pass. The fog became very thick and the views which should have been fantastic were almost non-existent. Still I felt the thrill and exhilaration of having made the big climb as Red Pass was nearly 3000 feet above Pass Creek and almost 15 miles away. By the time I hit Red Pass, I had already hiked over 17 miles and it was only 3 pm.

From here on out, it was all downhill. I was happy about that because I was foot sore, tired, and the day had been especially dark and dim. The big open views were capped with clouds, so that the alpine scenery was more shrouded than usual. Still, the trail was in great shape and those many blowdowns just had not occurred yet. I continued with my breaks every hour and sometimes I would listen to my audible account. Since I did not have any music, that made these days feel especially dimmer. There was also no cell service at all in this section as not even a check of the Mariners game was possible. Still I continued downhill as I would now be dropping all the elevation I had gained throughout the whole day.

The trail went from nearly 7000' all the way down to close to 4000'. This took me through more open scenery until I was back in the forest. Here the trail seemed to hug the shoreline of a creek that would turn into White Chuck River after all of the forks came together. It was very peaceful and quiet. There were beginning to be a few blowdowns to negotiate, but not anything too wild and crazy. There were also the benefits including small waterfalls to enjoy and the thick, milky outflow of glacial sediment coming through the creek. For some reason, it just felt pretty comfortable in the forest. As it was approaching 5:30, I began looking for a place to camp. I was hoping to make it to Chetwot Creek, but when I got to Baekos Creek, it felt like far enough for the day. I had worked hard on this day putting in 22.5 miles in some of the hardest terrain yet with multiple passes and continuous climbs. The creek was easily crossed and there was one other group camping there. I camped across the creek from them, so we did not interact much that night only seeing each other when I went to filter water from the creek. I camped at a site only a few feet off the trail, but I never saw a soul hike by the rest of the night. I enjoyed my dinner, did all my camp chores and settled in for the best sleep I had on the entire trail.

PCT Washington Day 17&18: Rest Day in Cashmere before Stevens Pass to Saddle Gap

2025-08-03T08:39:00.008-06:00

I spent the day in Cashmere. I did laundry at the laundromat. I had breakfast with my dad and Laura at a cafe. Mostly what I did was stay off of my injured foot. As I did not use it, I felt the feeling slowly return. It did not get back to normal, but it improved. I had the other insoles for my shoes, so I was going to give those a try. It may put more pressure on my Achilles, but I had to return the circulation to the right side of my right foot. So much for thinking ahead. I got to watch the Mariners game, only for them to lose. The main goal was rest and recovery and I felt bad for my company. They had nothing to do in Cashmere. We had dinner and then got to bed early. Part of the day was spent talking to my wife.

She was insistent once again that there was imminent danger ahead that I would have no way of avoiding my untimely death. This time it was fire starts from the previous thunderstorms. I looked on the Watch Duty app and there were a couple right in the direction that I was headed. I could not believe that these fires that had been listed as 0.1 acres could really impact my trip. I checked the PCT closures app and it did not have anything about them. Consulting with everyone again, I decided to continue my journey and gain more information while hiking. So when the morning came around, we were up early and on our way to Stevens Pass. Dad hiked with me for the first couple of miles. The trail was flat in this section and it was good to have company for a little bit.

After he left, I realized how good I was feeling. It is amazing how much a day of rest can rejuvenate your body. Even though my pack was quite heavy, I was feeling really good. Maybe because this was my last section, I was feeling the excitement of each mile that I put away behind me. The weather was great being a little cool and a little overcast. A few miles after my dad left, I realized that I did not have my mp3 player. This was not that big of a deal, I just would not have any music for the next week. The people I talked to along the way seemed to not have had any issues with fire, except there was an unreported blaze occurring in a valley near the trail. I could see it, but within minutes, I had passed it by.

This part of the trail was quite woody. There was a lake about 6 miles in, Lake Valhalla which had a slew of campers about it, which broke up that woodiness. There were also some high peaks to gaze upon, but for most of the day, I was in the forest. Having left a pass, it meant that I would need to do quite a bit of uphill on this day. It really was just a lot of up and down between elevations of 4000 feet and 6000 feet. Up to Lake Valhalla. Down to Lake Janus. Up to Grizzly Peak and down to Pear Lake. I talked to everyone I saw and they all just seemed so pleasant. They warned me of what was to come with the deadfalls around Glacier Peak.

I talked to one guy who had hiked most of Washington, but had actually turned around at the deadfalls because he did not want to go through it with his injuries. I felt bad for him, but he seemed in a good mood about it, so that was good. Mostly it was just a really pleasant day on the trail, pretty quiet, with lots of friendly people. I was feeling so good, too, that it didn't feel like work on this day. The views from Grizzly Peak were the best. I had enjoyed such great weather on this trip that it just felt so pleasant. Seeing Glacier Peak out in the distance made me realize the thing I liked most about the PCT. It was seeing a far off peak or area knowing that in a day or two, I would be there with just the effort in my legs.

The meadows were amazing, though, not as many berries on this day. Around Pear Lake, I actually got lost for a little bit, which was rare. Usually the PCT is the most dominant trail in the area, but so many people had camped down at Pear Lake, that I just followed a trail to its shores. When I looked on the map on my watch, I realized that the PCT was actually above me. I chose to bushwhack rather than backtrack. This worked out okay with a little bit of fight through the forest going uphill. It wasn't long before I was right back on the trail continuing on my way. I thought when planning the PCT, that I would always want to stay at a lake. Given the chance to stay at Pear Lake, though, I continued because moving north became just so much more important.

On this evening, I made it to a campsite near Saddle Gap. There was a really nice campsite there with running water and I was in a very good mood. I had a great day. My legs felt loose, my pack felt light, the sun was out and everything seemed to be coming up aces. The terrain was starting to open up more with big sweeping views. My foot was feeling numb, still, but it was working just fine. It did not seem to be getting much worse with my original insoles in. I was looking forward to another big day tomorrow having packed in 22 miles or so on this day. But for the night, I was in a great camping spot and was ready for a full night of rest. A few people wandered by after I had set up camp, but no one else camped beside me.

PCT Washington Day 16: Deception Pass to Stevens Pass

2025-08-01T07:56:00.001-06:00

I got an early start even though I did not to. Having tuned my body into the schedule of waking up early, I was now on that schedule for good or for bad. My foot was pretty sore still, but I was going to use a routine of taking it out of my shoe each chance I could to massage it. I was still kind of worried about it. It was now August 1st and I had been on the trail for 16 days. This was going to be my chance to escape for the day, though, because my dad and his wife Laura were meeting me at Stevens Pass. It was hard not to get too excited for a chance to sleep in a bed and relax for a little bit. I couldn't get too relaxed, yet, though because with a sore foot, I still had 21 miles to hike through difficult terrain.

The trail went uphill right from the start. There were lots of mosquitoes around to keep me company and unfortunately, many of my electronics were on the edge of dying. My inReach was dead, so my wife could not track my every move today. My cell phone still had about 60% charge left and my mp3 player was down to its last bar. That was okay, though, as being out here was what I enjoyed. The trail climbed toward Pieper Pass with the Deception Lakes coming into view to provide a break from the big views of far away mountains. I seemed to be moving pretty well on this day with a lighter pack than usual and the mosquitoes to motivate me to not stop for very long.

I gained over 1500 feet to get up to Pieper Pass, then quickly lost it. The trail seemed rather quiet for being so near to a major road, but maybe not as many people came this way from Stevens Pass. I am not sure why not, though, because there were lots of interesting mountains to climb and amazing looking lakes. I talked to a few people, but mostly it was me out there putting in the miles. The trail seemed to either be going up or down on this day. There was no long stretches of flat terrain. I spent a lot of the day on ridges with large sweeping views that I thoroughly enjoyed. One of the best views of the day was Trap Lake. It seemed like an awesome place to spend some time with large mountains all around it.

It was properly named as the water seemed to be trapped right on the edge of a big valley below it. The trail was even more quiet after this lake as there was an easier way in to this area than hiking the PCT. I wondered if the blue liners all went out that other way and only red liners were out here with me. After Trap Lake, it was downhill to Hope Lake, which wasn't much. Then back uphill. It didn't seem like much when looking at the map, but it felt like I was going over three passes today even though officially there was only one. There were soon salmon berries along the trail and they were getting bigger and redder as I hiked further north. The trail seemed to want to avoid Stevens Pass as it came ever so close to the road, but seemed to hook around to avoid it.

Soon I found myself in the ski area. It kind of wound around the power lines and chair lifts through open meadows filled with berries. There were a few people out here picking huckleberries and a lady laden with a large pack started to chat with me. She asked if I was Peter. I knew then that my dad was not too far away. It was only a few more bends in the trail before I ran into him. He offered to take my pack, but we walked the 2 miles back to the parking at Stevens Pass together. It was good to catch him up on all the happenings on the trail and I really appreciated the lift. This was not a short trip for him because it was 4 or 5 hours from his house to get to Stevens Pass. From there, we drove past the expensive tourist town of Leavenworth to the much warmer town of Cashmere. Here we had a hotel room for two nights. We got ourselves some pizza and had some ice cream and I settled in to catch up on the Mariners games and get some rest.

PCT Washington Day 15: Escondido Ridge to Deception Pass

2025-07-31T21:30:00.003-06:00

I slept very poorly. With the helicopter going overhead and the storms that were supposed to be developing and possibly coming down on me through the night, I just was restless. Besides that my foot was bothering me. I had this theory that if I slept on my left side, it would help it a little bit. So I made myself uncomfortable in the hope that the foot would feel a little bit better. It didn't actually seem to help much. I got some rest but 4:30 AM came really fast. I was the first one to start moving. This was supposed to be the day that all the thunderstorms were coming and I wanted to get to a safe spot before the thunder and lightning. The morning was very nice. The weather was comfortable and there were some clouds in the sky.

The lighting was just really nice for photos and it was good to be up early enough to see the sunrise. This morning was smooth sailing as I really only had a little bit of uphill to be on the ridge. Then it was sort of flat for a little bit and then I started going downhill. I think I camped in the correct spot as up on top of the ridge would have been very exposed. You could see the scars from fires past and once I got off the ridge, it was just a lot of time in the forest. There were a few more spots, but none as protected as the spot I found last night. The ridge felt really long. It seemed like I was on it and going downhill for just an enormous amount of time. I think the number of switchbacks and the fact that I knew that I could take a shortcut if I wanted all kind of played into my mind of this being an unnecessarily long ridge.

The truth was that this ridge could have been bypassed by just going from Pete Lake to Waptus Lake. It would have knocked off about 15 miles. Still, the views from up here were pretty exciting, but given that I had a sore foot in which every step made me question when the feeling would come back to my foot after I was done, made me a little antsy to be off this ridge. Still, I was happier to be going down then up and the people going up had a long climb ahead of them. Finally I made it down to the Waptus River in what seemed like a long amount of time. In reality, it was only about 9:15 and I had already covered 7+ miles. From here, the trail went back into the forest.

I could have chosen to hike right next to the lake as there was a trail that paralleled the PCT right next to the lakeshore. I figured that there might be more mosquitoes there and I was in a hurry to get as far as I could before the thunderstorms kicked in to gear. Besides the trail was not so bad. It was relatively flat and teeming with berries. I had to sort of control myself and only eat a handful every once in a while. Still, my fingers were turning red from the juices of all the berries I was trying to pick while continuing to walk. I paralleled the lake for quite some time before then climbing. It was muggy, hot, and the clouds were starting to build. Still, they did not seem like thunderstorm clouds and eventually it just started to rain.

This was good to avoid the thunderstorms, but the vegetation was rather thick and I was getting a bit wet. I was moving pretty good, though, as the trail climbed quite a bit uphill. After dropping 2500 feet in the morning, I was climbing it all back up to Cathedral Pass. Around 12:30, I came upon Deep Lake. This had been a desired campsite in the planning stages, but there was no way I would be camping at 12:30 in the afternoon. I continued to climb. I had a little less entertainment on this day, as all of my devices were getting low on charge. I had managed them pretty well, but this was now my 7th day out from White Pass and I was keeping as much charge as I could.

The rain seemed to come and go, but the weather never became threatening, so I allowed myself to keep moving. I climbed switchback after switchback getting up to Cathedral Pass. I decided that I really preferred switchbacks to long climbing. The switchback really accomplished the job quicker without as much work. There were numerous switchbacks to get up to Cathedral Pass, but I was still feeling good. Despite my foot being in bad shape, the rest of me was handling it just fine. I eventually topped out at Cathedral Pass about 2 in the afternoon. It felt a lot later because I had already put in 17 miles of hiking on this day. Having not slept well, I was aiming for just another 5 miles to get down to Deception Pass.

Cathedral Pass was one of those places it would be nice to come back to and spend a few days peak bagging. There were many climbable, beautiful peaks here and it was a quiet area being far enough away from Stevens Pass. I didn't do anything more than take my hourly break here and then it was down the trail. After Cathedral Pass, I started to get some salmon berries. That was a good sign and I made sure to eat as many of those as I could. They were a good supplement to my diet of trail mix, beef jerky, dried mango, and protein bars. The trail went down and down until it came to a creek. I saw the word Ford on my map, but usually this meant crossing a log. Maybe there was one that I didn't find, but this time, I had to ford the creek.

It was a healthy crossing too and given the foot pain and numbness, it took a while for me to prepare for and execute. I had to put on the camp sandals to get the job done. Once, I was in, it turned out just fine, but I also stopped to fill water. Even though I had been hiking near water sources all day, it had been quite some time since I filled up. This was kind of the norm for me, though, as I only seemed to have to fill up once a day. I ran into another hiker after this who seemed to not be in a very good mood about having to fill up on water at the lowest spot before his climb. It did not bother me too much as pack weight was not as big of an issue for me as I thought. I am not sure if I would have moved much faster than I already did even if my pack was lighter.

After the creek crossing, it was just a short climb to Deception Pass. It felt like a long time, though, because I was tired. My foot actually felt a bit better at this point and maybe taking it out of the shoe for a while at the creek crossing helped it. When I got up to Deception Pass, it was a dark place in the middle of a forest. There was no question about camping here, though, and there were even some small lakes to get water from. There were also mosquitoes around and eventually another group camped near me. I didn't interact with them at all, though, and instead went through my normal routine of eating dinner, taking notes, brushing teeth, filling water, reading a book, and getting to bed happy to have avoided any issues with thunder and lightning on this last day of July.

PCT Washington Day 14: Ridge Lake to Escondido Ridge

2025-07-30T11:55:00.150-06:00

I promised my wife that I was going to get an early start so that I had the option to quit early. So I was up at 4:30 AM. It was barely light at this time and I was barely awake. It was kind of nice to get going this early. The world looked different with different light. I was up on the ridge and I would stay there for most of this morning. The views were absolutely amazing. I knew that I was up early because for the first time, I was fighting the spiderwebs. The trail was pretty rough in this section with lots of loose rock and big dropoffs. My foot was feeling better than the previous day with the rest of three hours in the middle of the day yesterday giving me a bit of a reprieve. This felt like wild country. Here I was on this amazing trail with big beautiful lakes below me.

I took a lot of pictures because the scenery was very photogenic. It felt quiet out. In fact, I seemed to be seeing more marmots than people. I was excited to see the marmots and they were good company out here. The few people that I saw seemed to be just as happy as me to be out there. I found out later that the people who had built this trail were used to building railroads. It seemed like they just carved this right out of the rock. The other huge benefit to this morning was that I was in the shade for a long period of time. I could see the sun in the distance, but I did not have to deal with it beaming down on me. The trail itself was not too difficult. It seemed to go uphill to get over a ridge and then downhill to get down the other side.

All the while with these spectacular vistas with these pristine mountain lakes below me. This was an amazing day and my favorite day so far. I chatted with the few people that I saw. It seemed so much easier to have conversation in such a great spot. Most people were not PCTers, but were just out for multiple days. One group of older guys had just made it up a very steep hill and were in a pretty good mood that they had made the climb up from Spectacle Lake. I was taking a break under a tree. They chatted for a while. I then proceeded down this steep hill. I had heard that Washington was so much more difficult than Oregon because of all of the ups and downs. So far it had not seemed that way.

Now, though, I was starting to see those big elevation changes. Yesterday, I had to earn it up the hill in the afternoon. Today, I would be descending quite rapidly toward Spectacle Lakes. Looking at it from above, I could see why so many backpackers were spending a few days exploring this area. The lakes looked very inviting and the craggy peaks looked fun to scramble. I wouldn't mind spending another couple days out here on another trip. On this trip, though, I would have to continue moving forward. Today was marking two weeks of hiking and I was doing alright. It was also the halfway point of the whole trip as Spectacle Lake was the last big section on my map. I would move on to the second map after passing this area.

It was downhill for a long time. I saw some kids about boy scout age and their out of shape leaders heading up the trail to Spectacle Lake. They seemed overladen with gear and struggling to deal with the steep hill. I was feeling pretty good just coasting downhill. I went past a waterfall and struggled to find a place where I would have a shady spot to rest. This area was burned over and the sun was becoming hot. It still did not seem to be threatening thunderstorms, but the heat was definitely warming up the air. As I was dropping elevation, it just kept getting hotter. It was about this time that I missed the trail. The PCT was really easy to find most of the time, because I would just follow the most impacted part of the trail. When I did this in this area, though, I realized that I went the wrong way. For some reason the trail out to Pete's Lake was very obvious, but I missed the PCT. Looking at my map, though, it was about the same distance to keep going the same way I currently was going. So I just kept going. There was a stream to cross without a bridge, so I put on my camp shoes for this section. I made the crossing and then continued on the trail until I ran back into the PCT. Being nearly out of water, I backtracked to the bridge. The trail seemed to be in great shape, so I was not sure how I missed it.

I got below the bridge and filled some water. This is where the weather seemed to change pretty quickly. Up until this time, I was enjoying the nice sunny day. As I started up what I thought was going to be a pretty challenging hill, I could see the dark clouds start to build. There was absolutely no place to camp right now, though and given that it was still mid afternoon, I did not feel like camping anyway. Actually, I was feeling pretty good and the looming thunderstorms only seemed to motivate me more. I was actually getting in a pretty good groove charging up the hill. My pack was not incredibly heavy at this point and the switchbacks seemed to not be too bad. That is when the thunder started. I looked for lightning, but was not seeing any cloud to ground stuff. It was actually kind of funny because in one direction I was heading toward blue sky. As I turned the other direction, I was heading right toward thunderstorms. I hoped that the trail would go toward the blue sky instead. My wife was very paranoid of thunderstorms and lightning. Even though she was not here, her presence was felt and I moved forward with the thought of finding a place to camp as soon as I could. The ridge really didn't seem like the best place to be in a lightning storm, but so far I was still below the ridge.

This is when I saw a group of tents. Right near them, were a couple of older guys coming back with some wet swim trunks. They said something about going for a dip and I asked casually if there was a lake right there. They sort of gave me some attitude which was rare out there on the trail. It was funny how kind almost everyone is out there. You really get to be away from judgment and unhappiness out on the trail. Almost everyone is pleasant and in a good mood. It was surprising to see these guys grouchy. Still, I did not let it deter me and I still found a place to stay and a nice tent site right next to the trail. All the while, there was thunder of in the distance and a little bit of moisture from the sky. It was only 4:30, but camping seemed the right choice at this point. Once again, it turned out to be a little under 20 miles, but I was holding my end in the agreement. Once the tent was set up, I set out for a dip in the lake. It was kind of funny jumping in a lake while it was actually raining, but the water turned out to be the most comfortable on the entire trip. I enjoyed the dip and then went through the typical motions of my nightly routine. A freeze dried dinner, pumped some water, had some small chat with my neighbors, and after brushing the teeth, settling in for the evening. I hoped there were no fires above me and I awoke about 10 pm to the sound of helicopters over me. That was not a good sign, but given the amount of tents in this spot, I figured one of my neighbors would let me know if flames came down the ridge and I let myself get back to sleep.

PCT Washington Day 13: Mirror Lake to Ridge Lake

2025-07-29T12:39:00.001-06:00

Although I made it to sleep at a reasonable hour, I had a rough night. My foot pain came back during the night and made my sleep uncomfortable. It was always looming over me and my mind could not escape the fact that this may impact my whole trip. I thought that loosening my shoe would help, but the main thing that it did was cause me to roll my ankle more frequently. I knew there were going to be some residual effects of this after the trip was over, but I tried to ignore it. I knew the problem was being created by the new inserts that I put in my shoe. I was just going to have to decide if it was worth it to keep going. I thought about taking a break at Snoqualmie Pass, but once I got moving again, I felt like it was not going to impact my trip too much.

I only got moving at 7:15 AM. This was a late start for me as I seemed to have trouble moving very quickly on this morning. I was hiking just fine, though, as I had a little bit of uphill in the morning and then it was all downhill after that. I knew I only had about 9 miles to go to get to Snoqualmie Pass. From there, I could make different decisions on what to do about my foot. The walk there would really tell me. I moved along just fine with a couple of through hikers passing me in the morning. There were a lot of huckleberries around on the open slopes, so that gave me a little bit of fresh fruit. As I got closer to Snoqualmie Pass, the day hikers started to come out. There were not nearly as many as I expected, though.

Given the trail's proximity to a large metropolitan area, I was surprised. Maybe this area was just viewed as less scenic than the north side of the trail. It gave me something to look forward to. The trail wound through open slopes and forest when soon I was on a ski hill heading downhill into the town that housed the ski area. I asked some people if they knew the town well. They said they did and recommended the grocery store to the left for fancier food and the gas station for packaged food. So I walked over to the fancy grocery store. There I took a break to get some charging done and talk to my wife. She was in a rare mood and seemed determined to take me off the trail to wait out an impending thunderstorm that was on its way.

I am not going to lie, it had me all confused. I trusted her judgment, but thought that she was overreacting. I talked to both of my parents and we agreed that I would just hike early and try to camp earlier to avoid being in a bad spot during a thunderstorm. This is what I told her. She still was not convinced. The funny thing about the conversation is that it seemed to make up my mind about my foot. I would go forward because that was what I was planning to do. It took me a while to get through all of that. In the process, my electronics were charging very slowly. I ordered myself a burrito. I had lunch with a very nice Canadian couple. The guy was a teacher and a former cross country coach. I walked over to the gas station to buy some extra food in case I needed to stay out an extra day.

It took me about 3 hours to get all reorganized again and to set out on the trail. It was 1 pm by the time I was heading out. This meant that I was going to be on the trail during the heat of the day and it was going to be a hot one. Also, now my pack was a little bit heavier considering I had bought a little more food and all my water was filled. I had a lot of uphill to cover as the trail gained about 2500 feet from about 3000 feet in elevation to around 5500 feet. I was feeling pretty good, though. The three hour rest was sort of a luxury and now my foot and my energy level seemed to be at a peak. I was feeling pretty good with my ability to get up the many switchbacks. I was passing lots of people coming down as this was the more scenic section from Snoqualmie Pass. Just as I was feeling really good, a northbound thru hiker came behind me. I got off the trail for him to pass. We chatted for a little bit. He was covering 40+ miles a day. He was from Canada and said that his favorite part of the trail was Oregon. I appreciated that. He and I talked for a few minutes and then he was gone, never to be seen again. I continued to fight my way up the switchbacks doing my best to stay cool. I took my breaks every hour and soon I was approaching more open country. There were tall, pointy mountains all around.

I had been viewing these mountains for many days as I hiked through the endless forests south of Snoqualmie. Now I was finally there. I really was enjoying this section of trail. I knew, though, that there was a dangerous section that loomed up ahead. I was nervous about what I read about the Kendall Katwalk. Here was supposed to be a very narrow, very exposed section of the trail. When I actually got there, though, it turned out to be a walk in the park. Not only was it not narrow, but you could have fit two people wide on that section of trail super easy. Sure, there was a large drop off, but it would have been nearly impossible to actually fall down that.

Once I got passed the Kendall Katwalk, I realized how tired that I was. I knew that Ridge Lake was up ahead and it would be really nice to camp at a lake. I was hot, sweaty, tired, sore, all the things that a lake could help me improve. But Ridge Lake would leave me with a day of only 16 miles. This seemed like too small of a day. Still, when I got to the lake and saw its cool inviting waters, I decided that this would be my destination for the night. There were other groups already camped there, but I found a nice big site to myself that I could stay at. After putting down my tent, though, the ground was a little bit too dusty for me. So I grabbed the tent and moved it down the hill.

Here I had a campsite right next to the water. I put up the tent and then went for a swim. It was a little muddier than I was hoping for, but eventually I got to the middle. It was pretty comfortable conditions, but I still only stayed for a few minutes. It dropped my body temperature down and got me clean pretty quick. I made myself some dinner and pumped some water. While I was pumping water, a couple swam with their dog all the way across the lake. I ended up talking with them later. They were interested in hiking the PCT. I encouraged them to go for it. You too can have a numb foot. Actually the foot wasn't too bad and I think that 3 hour break was pretty good for it. I got myself to sleep early because the plan was to get up early to beat the thunderstorms.

PCT Washington Day 12: Near Tacoma Pass to Mirror Lake

2025-07-28T06:51:00.001-06:00

I didn't sleep as well as I had been sleeping on the rest of the trip. I had a problem for the first time. My right foot was experiencing some numbness. It was making sleep very difficult. I actually was trying to sleep differently to help it out. It was hard to stay asleep without thinking about my foot. I still got enough sleep, but it wasn't as restful as the rest of the trip had been. The beginning of the hiking today was all downhill. It seemed like a funny concept to have to go downhill to get to a pass, but that was how it often was. I was going downhill to reach Tacoma Pass. When I got near there, there was a creek. Quite a few people were camping around the creek. One of them even told me how to get access to the creek, but since it had not been very warm, I was doing quite okay with water.

I thanked them, but continued on my way. Once I got to Tacoma Pass, it was mostly uphill. I continued on spending today going back and forth between listening to Audible and listening to some music. It was a lot of forest time and while it was a beautiful day, the forest was my main friend. Sometimes I would pop out and get views of Mt. Rainier or the peaks around Snoqualmie Pass, but for the most part, I was in the forest. Around 10:30, I found a spring to get some water and I filled up. The trail went up and down quite a bit and there were some open sections with lots of sunshine. I continued to practice my strategy of taking the trail one hour at a time and it seemed to help. Luckily there were quite a few berries along the way.

I had to control myself because I would lose all forward momentum if I stopped to eat too often, but I also could not let the big, juicy huckleberries go by just walking past. I made some good progress and soon I was crossing Stampede Pass. I talked to another hiker around here who was sadly disappointed with the scenery as we crossed a large field under some large power lines. It made me hopeful for the way ahead because the scenery here was rather similar to the scenery I had been seeing for quite some time the last couple of days. Today, though, I seemed to have a goal. I was wanting to make it to Mirror Lake. It sounded great to have a bath in the lake and it sounded prettier than what I was currently looking at. So I continued. I had to work hard to get to Mirror Lake. At this point, my foot was not feeling that badly. I figured when I got to camp, though, it would because I am sure another 23 miles on it was going to wear me out a little bit. I kept pushing, though, and even though it was later than I was hoping to get there, I pulled in to Mirror Lake at 6:24 pm. There were a lot of campsites taken and I had to scour around to find a decent one. I was lucky to find one relatively close to another person who I never say emerge from there tent. I made sure to get all set up, but my first order of business was a dip in the lake.

Even though the sun had passed behind the trees, this was still a worthwhile endeavor. It cooled me off quickly and cleaned me up a bit. I never stayed in long having accomplished my two goals rather quickly. I ate some dinner after that and frankly I was tired. My foot was feeling not so bad and I wondered if I had helped it out by loosening my shoe a little bit. It seemed like it was less sore, but it was still numb. I did my best to give it some rest as I made my best attempt at getting to sleep as soon as possible.

PCT Washington Day 11: Martinson Gap to near Tacoma Pass

2025-07-27T16:58:00.001-06:00

It had been a cold night which meant that I slept great. There were times where I was close to being cold, but it was nice in the tent and the warm sleeping bag. Getting up and out of my bag was a little bit harder this morning. Once I made it out of the tent, I realized why it had been so cold. A misty fog had settled on to Martinson Gap and everything was shrouded in clouds. The people around me were very noisy and were talking loudly before I even got out of my tent. There were definitely more social people than me out there on the trail. I was content to pack up my stuff and head out though. It would be foggy and cold today. The forest was less than exciting because many sections of it were burned over. Still, the terrain would be rather easy and I knew I could make a lot of miles.

I actually still had quite a bit of water, too, so I was doing just fine. With the cool misty air, I was not losing much to sweat, so that made the hiking much easier. I ran into the same guy I seemed to run into often. This was the last time that I saw him. He had a crazy story about wandering around until 2 AM after he got lost looking for water. I talked to him for a little bit and said I was sure I would see him again, but I never did. Hopefully he made it because he was sure putting forth a lot of energy toward this trail. I went past Louisiana Saddle and Rod's Gap. I was listening to Silent Spring by Rachel Carson on Audible and I will have to say, that book was pretty depressing. There were also some moments when the clouds would pull away or the burnt forest would become more tree cover that made this day better, but for the most part I was just packing in the miles.

It was around 11 AM when I made it to Camp Mike Urich. This was an odd place along the PCT. It was a cabin in the woods that opened up to a large meadow. There was a creek running through with a bathroom that smelled strongly of the odor of needing a thorough cleaning. The bathroom reminded me that I was not supposed to drink the water here, so I was going to have to find the spring that would be the last reliable water source for quite some time. As I was leaving Camp Mike Urich, there were a group of people that came upon the cabin. They looked as if they had not hiked more than a mile in many years. Sure enough, when I came around the corner, there were a whole slew of jeeps parked there.

It was a little bit of a culture shock and I thought of the masses going about their Sundays and enjoying the day to go home and sleep in their warm beds. Meanwhile, I was here putting in the miles hoping that I would get a good 25 miles further up the trail so that I could do the same thing again the next day. Leaving Camp Mike Urich, I ran into some south bound PCT hikers who were very friendly. That put me right back in the mood to be on the trail again. I was excited because it was Sunday and I was near enough to Seattle to hopefully pick up an FM radio station with the Mariners game on it. I listened to 97.3 which gave me a little news before finally giving me the Mariners game. Unfortunately, they were to lose the game, but it still provided a few hours of entertainment for me.

The scenery today was a lot of going in and out of new growth forests, crossing logging roads, and a little bit of distant views to get me excited for the future. There was a spring I could not miss, though, and I asked some people if it was easy to find. Sure enough, when I came upon it, there were many thirsty people gathered around the watering hole. I spoke very little because there was a guy there trying very hard to impress the girls that were there. I also realized just how smelly I was when I was around some others. I filled my water and I was off upon my way. I was starting to have some trouble with my foot. I changed my inserts in my shoes before I left for the PCT and finally on Day 11 it was starting to catch up with me.

It was really just my right foot. Until now, it had been a little bit of numbness. Now, though, it was starting to feel swollen. It felt like there was a big lump in my foot that I had to walk over. It made walking uncomfortable. I tried to ease the stress on the foot by taking off my shoes during my hourly breaks and massaging it. I think it helped because I would feel better for a bit. The truth was that I needed to stop walking, but that was not going to happen. I continued through the forest and passed the many roads. At times, there were exciting views that gave me a preview of things to come. Most of the time, though it was me in the trees. I had my only significant uphill of the day after Green Pass and then I would look for a place to camp.

As I got to the Saddle north of Blowout Mountain, I knew there was a campsite soon. When I got there, though, it seemed taken. I did not always feel comfortable about invading another person's camp spot, but I would if I had to. I did not have to, so I continued. It took me another couple of miles to finally find a camp site. It was at the end of a dirt road. It felt a little bit ominous there, but I was just happy to get the pack off. I got some dinner and was still able to get to bed early. The foot pain was an issue and it was going to affect my sleep. I tried sleeping differently to make it better on my foot. Either way, it was nice to not be walking for a while.

PCT Washington Day 10: Two Lakes to Martinson Gap

2025-07-26T07:16:00.001-06:00

Slept really well again. Really enjoying these many hours of sleep. If there is one thing that hiking all day does for your body, it makes you tired enough to get a lot of rest. I got up at 6 AM like usual and the other campers were already gone. The PCT takes quite a bit of dedication to get up that early and be moving before 6 AM. They were doing the whole thing, though, so those extra hours can add up. I got to push it up the hill to start the morning. So far my achilles tendon was doing well, but my right foot was starting to ache and experiencing some numbness. The hill was not easy, but then after that it was really fairly flat. There were some rolling hills and definitely some big views around corners, though. I enjoyed getting to see Mt. Rainier.

It was shrouded in clouds most of the time, but there were some instances when it would peak its way out. Though less snow on the mountain then when I was a kid, it was still rather majestic and deserved respect. I would be on the border of being in and being out of Mt. Rainier National Park. It was like the Park Service could not decide if they wanted the PCT in the National Park, so they gave it the border. You can feel like you are in Mt. Rainier National Park, but you are not really sure whether you really are. I also got to see the largest animal on the PCT so far when I viewed a couple of elk in the morning. We had elk at our house often growing up, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but it is nice to know they are still out there.

The trail was fairly quiet at first. I saw one backpacker before the American Ridge trail junction. He was in a great mood. Then before Anderson Lake, I saw a family that was out backpacking. After Anderson Lake, though, the multitudes started to appear. I remembered that it was a Saturday, so I would probably see a few more people out and about today. Once I got to Dewey Lake, a few was a complete understatement. Dewey Lake was packed with tents. It seemed like almost all available spots were taken up. While it was a very beautiful lake with blue water and big views to the surrounding peaks, it wasn't that remarkably different than other lakes I had seen.

It was just close to Chinook Pass, so I prepared myself for the onslaught of people. Any preparation that I had was blown out of the water. As I approached Chinook Pass, it seemed like there was a group of people every 30 seconds. Me in my disheveled condition was not in the mood to see so many hikers. I knew I didn't smell that great which was confirmed when I heard another hiker say something about me being spicy to someone else. The funny thing to me is how different they smelled. With the freshly laundered clothes and their once in a blue moon hiking outfits, I could definitely tell the difference between the PCT hikers and the weekend warriors.

It really became slightly absurd how many people there were as I approached Chinook Pass. It was a bit overwhelming to me to be so many days into this thing and then have this flood of humanity. As I got closer to Chinook Pass, I could see why. There were cars parked everywhere along the road for what seemed to be miles. There were so many different places to hike. This trail being close to major population centers on both sides of the Cascades led to this flood of humanity. I kind of had the blinders on as I walked on down the line when I saw a van with a table set up. There was fruit, cookies, a charging station, some chairs. That is when I realized that this was trail magic! I asked and they said yes, but I felt sort of like an outsider because I was not doing the full trail. I definitely took advantage of it but I was not into trail culture. Most of what the conversation was about was all the long distance trails they had hiked, so on and so forth. I don't know if I can get into the whole I am better PCT hiker than you competition. For me, I just want to do it for myself and I could care less if I impress anyone. I stayed for as long as I could handle the scene and then I went on my way a little fuller in the belly with my electronics a little bit more juiced.

The trail sort of hugged the road for a while and there were still a lot of people. When I go running in a busy place, often the runners acknowledge other runners and not the walkers and the bikers. It is sort of like that with PCT hikers. I still greeted the other hikers, but in this section I only had conversations with other PCT hikers. The topic would definitely be the trail magic as it was nice to give some other hikers something to look forward to. The trail turned toward Sheep Lake. This was probably my fourth Sheep Lake so far, but it was by far the busiest. There were people all around. I was glad I did not need water, because I am sure there was a bit of bacteria in that water.

After Sheep Lake, the trail climbed quite steeply and it was becoming a rather warm afternoon. It was a little bit disconcerting to have other hikers passing me by while I took a break to fuel up in the shade. I felt a bit like an outsider here with all of the day hikers. Still, people were friendly and I talked to quite a few people. As I approached Sourdough Gap, I was happy to see the trails diverting. The way that everyone was going was more uphill and my way went downhill to a more open section. After this junction, the trail became much more quiet. There were still PCT hikers, but the day hikers were all heading over Sourdough Gap to Crystal Lake.

The trail eventually became a little bit more exposed. It was a narrow trail, very exposed both to the heat of the day and to the potential for long uncomfortable falls for missteps. Most of the time the PCT was smooth sailing, but this was definitely a section that I needed to watch my step. What was nice is that during this section, I actually had some phone service, so when I took a break under a shady tree, I gave my wife a call. She was just getting out of the shower, so really just starting her day when I was getting near the finish of mine. The trail continued its hot, exposed course as views down into the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort entered my view.

Personally, I had never been skiing there, but plenty of people did. Judging by the parking lot that I saw below, there were plenty of people there today for whatever summer activities were offered. It was about this time that I ran into the same guy that had camped near me by White Pass. He was asking another group for water. They were so kind to him and were offering him even more than he was taking. I try hard to not be judgmental, but I was really afraid this guy was not going to make it. Asking for water is a red flag because it means that you are not prepared. I think rule one of backpacking is to take care of yourself. I still chatted with him, but luckily I was not asked to give up any of my water.

It was a bit of a walk before the next water was on the map. It was also very exposed and somewhat warm. I was in pretty good shape, though. About this time, though, the topography changed just a little bit and the trail seemed to go in and out of a burned zone. This added to the difficulty and decreased from the scenic beauty. Still, it did not last the whole time and there were definitely plenty of wildflowers. I made it to the water spot and this one was really nice because it was coming right out of the side of the mountain. I was able to pull it right out of there without treating. That meant I saved 5 minutes and was able to keep moving. I was heading toward Martinson Gap. This was going to be about 22.5 miles on the day.

Not sure there was anything special about Martinson Gap. There was no water there and there was just camping on the map. I was ready to camp on this night and I put the spot into my GPS. I used my watch a little more than normal and soon I could see the area full of unburned trees ahead was my spot to camp. I had a small uphill to get there. When I arrived, some of the choicest campsites were taken. I am a strange one on the PCT, because I would rather camp near people, but not in there business. So I found a nice site about 100 feet away from the main area. It was right under some trees and was just flat enough for my small tent. I went through the typical motions of the nightly camp. This night there was no refilling the water bottles, so I made dinner, ate it, brushed my teeth, got in the tent, read for a little bit, and take some notes on the day. I was able to get to bed early which is just so important. There was another day tomorrow where I had to do it all again.

PCT Washington Day 9: White Pass to Two Lakes

2025-07-25T08:03:00.002-06:00

I woke up at 6 AM like usual in a nice warm cozy bed. I was all packed up, so after breakfast, we were in the car. Mom and Carl drove me back to the White Pass trailhead. They dropped me off across the street at the trailhead and soon I was back on the trail. It was a late start of 9:15 AM, but I was not too concerned. I had a full pack and the trail was not going to be too difficult today. It was uphill through the forest at first, but there was only about 1000 feet to climb. There were many lakes around also which meant that there were also a lot of mosquitoes. I stopped at one to put on some bug spray and talked to a northbound hiker passing me by. When a northbound hiker passed me, I knew I would never see them again because they were probably moving too quickly.

For the most part, though, the trail was fairly quiet. There were many times that I had to turn on the GPS on my watch because there were very few PCT signs and the trail just seemed extraordinarily quiet. I was moving pretty well despite the 7 days of food in the pack as the trail was fairly easy to follow. I knew I had a ford to cross on the Bumping River. I was sort of excited to cross it because as kids we went to Bumping Lake so often. I also think that I crossed the Bumping River on a previous backpack and I was imagining this extensively large, deep river. Instead, it was pretty mild and there was even an easy log crossing right near the trail. After the ford, the trail began to climb again.

Here I would have to climb almost 2000 feet in elevation over a little more than 4 miles. This still was not too bad and there were some beautiful lakes and meadows. I had intended to stay at Crag Lake, but when I was near there, I still felt pretty strong. I got water at the Crag Lake outlet and ran into some more PCT hikers there. It always seemed like the water sources were the place where the masses congregated. I talked with them for a little bit and then I was on my way still climbing. The water source hikers passed me by easily as I was slowly plodding along getting my 2-2.5 miles per hour. It was getting late, though, and I was thinking that sleep might be the right thing to do soon.

Once it was after 5 pm, I started to look for the right place to camp. The views, though, were just starting as I entered the very eastern corner of Mt. Rainier National Park. There were big views of meadows and mountains all around. There were not many views of Mt. Rainier, but when I got one, it was mostly covered in clouds anyway. Eventually after climbing for some time, the trail leveled out. My goal was to find the Two Lakes trail and go downhill to the lakes to camp there. When I found it, I was surprised to see someone was camped right at the junction. I took my stuff and went down to the actual lake. When I got there, another tent was already there. I didn't see anybody home, so I set up a little bit away from the tent.

It was a nice quiet spot that really let me spread out a little bit. There was a stream running behind the campsite and the lake beckoned. Given that it was now approaching 7 pm, the lake was now in the shadows. I still managed to muster the strength to take a dip, though it was a very cold lake. I got myself all changed and ate some dinner. After dinner, I went to get water and the other campers were back. They were southbounders from New Jersey and Idaho. They were really friendly and we talked for a while during our water fill up. Afterwards, though, I did not see them anymore as it was time to get some rest. It was a nice quiet comfortable spot and I was happy to be back on the trail enjoying the cool evening.

PCT Washington Day 8: Hogback Mt. to White Pass

2025-07-24T19:32:00.001-06:00

I awoke at 6:00 AM like normal. I had heard another hiker camp next to me after I was in bed and he was already up before me. When I finally got myself together and emerged from my tent, it was a guy from Oregon I talked to the previous day. He seemed like he was a bit of a mess with a bulky camera and some large hiking boots. When I talked to him yesterday, he said he was doing 30 miles a day. I didn't think he would be able to keep up that pace given the amount of gear that he was carrying. It took me a while to get out of the tent, so he and I were both nearly packed up. I got most things packed early because the mosquitoes were so bad. The trail today was not going to be very tough. It was nearly all downhill and it was only about 5 miles to White Pass. The terrain was rather easy and my pack was the lightest that it had been. Still I took my time because I had a ride arranged. My mom and her husband were going to pick me up and drive me 2.5 hours to Lacey where they lived. I was looking forward to a home cooked meal and a chance to repack some gear. Even taking my time, I got to the trailhead at 8:45. I used the last of my cell phone battery and I was picked up at 9:22 AM. I got my clothes washed and was able to repack all my gear. I made a few changes. I changed out shoes, but kept my same insoles. I noticed that my right foot was experiencing some numbness, now that I had my shoes off, but I was not worrying about it too much. I had some issues with my chargers as it took for ever for my power bank to recharge. I had pizza for lunch, chicken for dinner, and stayed up just late enough to watch the Mariners defeat the Angels. The next day I would be on the trail again, but for the night I could stretch out and sleep in a nice warm bed after a much needed shower.

PCT Washington Day 7: Sheep Lake to Hogback Mountain (via Goat Rocks)

2025-07-23T07:03:00.001-06:00

The morning started with the disappointment that the clothes that I washed the night before were not going to be dry. That was okay because tonight would be my last night on the trail before having a break. This was a big day because I was going to get to go through Goat Rocks. I got up at the usual time of 6 AM. I started moving by 6:45 AM and almost immediately I got big views in all directions. With only 2.4 miles to Cispus Pass from Sheep Lake, I knew that I was in for a show. I hiked around the lake and there were many people camped there. Then I hit the meadows. I had views south to Mt. Adams and to the north there were many small peaks. As I came around a corner, I saw a big drainage from the Klickitat River on the Yakima Indian Reservation.

Here many peaks rose up in front of me and the marmots came out on the rocks to greet me. I moved slowly as usual, but steadily and soon I was at Cispus Pass. I took a break here because this was one place I was getting service. I checked my phone and found out how the Mariners were doing. I refueled and before I was gone from the pass, I spoke to quite a few people including Sam and Patrick from the first night on the trail. They seemed to be the only people that I saw more than once. I asked about Cispus Camp since I knew Sam grew up in Washington. She said that she had actually been a counselor there. I left them and dropping down from Cispus Pass is where the big views really started.

There were big snowy mountain peaks with their snowfields and glaciers melting down to create streams and waterfalls through lovely green flowery meadows. Coming around the corner on the pass, you could see the whole route curving around the valley crossing streams and meadows. I hiked around really soaking it all in because this place really was quite amazing. I came around the corner, crossing the Cispus River, before I ended up at Snowgrass Flat. Here the terrain became slightly different. It was rockier with more fragile alpine plants. There were snowfields in some places and smaller streams. Here the trail climbed to over 7000'. There seemed to be more people around on the trail then had been there so far.

They also seemed to be moving much slower than me as I was passing people all over the place. I was good with that, though, as each corner and curve produced a new view of a hanging valley, a snowfield, a distant mountain. I started to get my first views of Mt. Rainier in this section which was sort of like coming home having grown up near there. Goat Rocks was truly spectacular, but by 10:30, I was now approaching what a lot of people were talking about, having to cross the snow. Luckily, I was wise enough to bring yaktrax with me, so I had a traction device. I wondered if I should wear them. There was a small snowfield before the big snowfield, so I tried crossing it without the yaktrax. It was difficult, so I thought when I got to the big snowfield, I would wear them.

I could see the first of the big snowfields in front of me and there were definitely some people taking their time crossing it. You could see that each step was deliberate. You could also tell that a fall, while not life threatening, would be embarrassing and a little bit scary. So the goal was to cross the snowfield without falling. I got to the edge and quickly put my yaktrax on. They were very helpful and even though they were not as nice as crampons, they did provide additional traction. I still spent some time on the crossing kicking steps for my feet to have more purchase. This seemed to help quite a bit. The interesting thing was that going up was the easiest, but going down was challenging.

This was because gravity was pulling down on my heavy pack and trying to make me go the easiest way. Well, I took my time and I crossed the multiple snowfields until I was safely on solid ground happy that I had carried the yaktrax for the last week just for the 10 minutes that they were a necessary item in my backpack. The big day was not done at this point and for the next mile or so, I got to be on what was called the Knife's Edge. Having hiked in many places all around the U.S. and the the world, this knife's edge was not so bad compared to hikes I had done in Zion or Grand Canyon. Still, the feats of engineering to build this section of trail were impressive and I was really enjoying being here.

It is kind of funny how your anticipation of a section of trail is often way different than the reality. Having treacherous snowfields and an area known as the Knife's Edge sounds like a potential trip ruiner. When you are there, though, it is not much different than the usual of putting in the miles and soaking in the views. As I picked my way through the Knife's Edge, the number of hikers began to dwindle away. By the time I made it to Elk Pass, I actually felt quite alone out there. I think people were really taking their time through the big views. I was more interested at this point in trying to pick up the Mariners game, which I succeeded in doing first on my mp3 player that had a FM radio on it.

It would cut in and out with a radio station playing music in Spanish. After a while, I gave up and tried my cell phone which actually had some service. It had been spotty at best so far, but today I was getting good service. I listened to the game, but the Mariners disappointed me with a loss. From here the big mountains and large snowfields disappeared and it was more large meadows with bubbling brooks running through them. I stopped for a while to fill up some water at one of these and then the trail continued going downhill into the forest. Here I was surprised to see just how quiet the trail could be with barely a soul to keep me company. It was such a different than up in the peaks of Goat Rocks that I often checked to make sure I was still on the PCT.

The views were unspectacular for a while as I went downhill into the forest. At Tieton Pass, it switched over and soon I was going uphill through the forest again. There were a few more PCTers here and one warned me that there was no water up ahead. So I decided I would leave the trail and go to Shoe Lake to get water. When I did Oregon, there were a lot of talk about blue liners and red liners. Red liners stayed on the official trail and blue liners picked their own path. I was somewhere in the middle preferring to stay on the red line unless the blue line turned out to be a preferred alternative. In this case, there was access to water and a lake to swim in to cool down and get clean for the evening, so I chose to take the slightly longer route to Sheep Lake.

I got my water and took a dip in the nice cool lake. I would have probably chosen to stay at Sheep Lake, but there were signs all around that said it was day use only. It looked like an ideal place to camp, so I could see that it probably had a bunch of impact at some point. I enjoyed the cool lake, but it was already getting late. I packed up and headed back up the trail to reconvene with the PCT. I found a campsite not too far from the junction. There were the usual mosquitoes there, which had been absent for most of the day, but no water. I made a quick dinner and still got to bed by 8. When I was drifting off, I heard another camper make camp. I decided I would visit with them in the morning and enjoyed the blissful sleep after a very full day.