PCT 2015 - Section Hike Stevens Pass to Canadian Border
We're gearing up to tackle another three week section hike from Stevens Pass to the Canadian Border starting next Monday. Been trying to get some backpacking, hiking, and stairs training in over the past couple of months, but I don't think we are in as good a shape as we were last year (Reds Meadow to Donner Pass). Oh well, we'll just have to hike ourselves into shape! We have our fingers crossed that the weather will continue to be good up here in the Northwest. I did find out that there is a wildfire near Angus Creek, just south of Stehekin, but so far the PCT has not been closed or rerouted.
Of the overnighters and day hiking we have done this summer on the local trails and PCT, there wasn't much water to be found due to the drought conditions we have been having. All seasonal water has long since dried up, so we will probably have to carry extra water each day.
I've dehydrated most of my meals this year but the food bag is still pretty heavy for the first section. We plan to hike the first 97 miles to High Bridge in about nine days. That sounds like a long time, especially if you are a thru hiker and can do 30 miles a day, but we can't so we will just poke along and do the best we can.
July 27th: Miles: 6 First Day on the Trail
Got a late start on the trail due to having to drive north from Oregon. Swung by and picked up our friend Reid who graciously drove us up to Stevens Pass. His lovely wife Susan made an awesome gourmet coffee cake for a mid morning snack before we drove the rest of the way to Stevens Pass. Final pictures and we were on our way down the trail. Because we started so late, we decided to camp at Lake Valhalla, about six miles in. Halfway up, it started drizzling so out came the umbrella and rain coat. There were a ton of people coming down from either weekend camping or dayhiking. Saw a big fat marmot crouched on a rock waiting for his picture to be taken. Soon after, here comes this squirrel barreling down the trail toward us, his chubby cheeks packed full of straw. Made camp and dinner and snuggled in for the night by 7:30pm. At 7:45pm, the rain started again, and the pitter patter on the tent lulled us to sleep. This was a perfect chance to see how my Zpacks Hexamid Solo Plus did. I didn't like the mesh floor so I sewed in the bathtub floor, leaving about three inches of mesh around, and cut the rest out. I weighed the tent again, and by cutting out the mesh, it weighted 16 ounces. The doorway was a challenge, but my engineer husband came to the rescue and suggested a great way to sew the rest in.
We were really disappointed on how dirty the surrounding area around Lake Valhalla is. Toilet paper is everywhere, found three birthday candles, one AA battery, plastic bags, and other yucky stuff. Such a jewel of a lake, but so much garbage.
July 28th: Miles; 12.4 Pear Lake
Woke up with a bit of condensation in the tent, I guess that can be expected since we had rain last night. On the trail by eight, not the earliest start, but we're working our way into this trip. Met a gal and her 11 year old son who is hiking Washington state, starting at Cascade Locks. They hiked Oregon two years ago. Very cool!
Had a great downhill start to the day, beautiful blue skies, perfect temperature, awesome hiking day. Our goal was Pear Lake 12.4 miles away. A lot of up and down. We had attempted this section back in 2011 and there was so much snow at that time, we had to turn around before reaching Pear Lake. This time there wasn't any snow to be seen. We were glad we tanked up at Lake Valhalla as there wasn't any water for miles. We stopped at Grizzly Peak for lunch and heard a bunch of whooping and hollering, and way way down at Heather Lake, there were three guys having a great time in the water. I could only see them with my camera's 30x zoom. It was quite entertaining! Then a pair of military jets flew by, zipping around the peaks. Couldn't get a picture, darn it. They were really fast. Finally made it to Pear Lake. It was a tad windy, but we cleaned up, made dinner (homemade spaghetti, yum him!)
July 29th: Miles: 11 Lake Sally Ann
Quiet night last night, and such a beautiful morning! We spent a few extra minutes rinsing out our hair, it felt so good! Ran into Mike who was attempting to hike from Stevens Pass to Stehekin. He had put in a 17 miler the day before, and he was 71 years old, with a knee that was replaced three years ago! We were impressed. Four miles down the trail at a running creek, we ran into a few more section hikers and we discussed the Blankenship wildfire that has closed the PCT trail on the Agnes Creek area. Apparently the reroute is quite difficult so a few of us are going to decide what to do when we reach Suiattle Pass where the reroute begins. We are really hoping it has been reopened. We ran into one young man who decided to hike from Rainy Pass to Stevens Pass in five days! He thought that 20-30 mile days would be no problem, and he was regretting that decision.
After lunch, we had a big elevation gain to go to Lake Sally Ann. Jingle Bell was getting pretty exhausted by 2pm, but we had miles to go. The black flies were ferocious today and I put on my pant legs and long shirt to keep them from biting me. The drawback was how hot it was. Oh, I forgot to mention - the huckleberries are amazing this year. The bushes are packed with berries. My hands, lips, and mouth were stained blue all day.
We hear that the further north we go, the harder the trail will be. We hope to get an earlier start tomorrow to help beat the heat.
July 29th: Miles: 14 Baekos Creek
Each day is getting harder. Water spots were few and far between. Tons of uphill, but gorgeous views of Glacier Peak and surrounding mountains. Ran into a fellow with a big red beard so we named him Red Beard. Then we ran into Paint the Wagon. What an interesting character. He even serenaded us with the Paint the Wagon song. It was very windy all day, but I used my umbrella almost the whole time. It was so hot. Cheryl loaned her umbrella to Mike as he was slowing down and suffering from the heat. At lunch, Mike asked me about the NUUN tablets. Apparently he was eating them. He thought they were terrible. I instructed him to put them in water and then check out the difference. He was amazed. From Red Pass it was all downhill to Baekos Creek. Jingle Bell was exhausted, her back and hips hurt. Her pack is pretty heavy.
Had a nice evening visit with Cheryl, Quinn, and Mike. A fellow backpacker came over and said he and his girlfriend were running light on food and wanted to know it we had any spare food. Mike was getting off the trail tomorrow so he gave the guy a bunch of food. The guy and his girlfriend were from Switzerland and attempting to do the trail southbound. He didn't think they would finish the trail, but would get a big piece done.
Still wondering about that Blankenship fire. I hope it has died down so we can go down the Agnes Creek trail to Stehekin.
July 31st: Miles: 14 Mica Lake
Jingle Bell made the decision to leave the trail today. Mike made the generous offer for her to go out with him today through Kennedy Springs. She has been having a very hard time with body injuries, especially her back. Jingle Bell was very sad and it was an emotional moment. We started out early and came to the intersection for Mike and Jingle Bell to split off. They started downhill and I started uphill, the very long hill. I was really glad that I started early because it was a pretty tough day. There is much more water starting today, so I did not have to carry so much water. There were so many spider webs across the trail that I had put my long sleeves and pant legs on. I had been wondering all day why there have been no south bound hikers today. Once I arrived at the final saddle before Mika Lake, I looked across and saw the Blankenship fire. There wasn't a few wisps of smoke, as one southbound hiker going southbound two days ago mentioned, it was a full on raging fire. The fire people must have stopped all hikers going south even on the alternate route. So now we are in a quandary on what to do. This is a go - no go today because I still have 5 days of food left. We could hike over to Suiattle Pass and attempt to go out west and hitch a ride. Or we could hike back south and go out the same route Mike and Jingle Bell went. I'm waiting for Cheryl and Quinn to arrive to make a decision on what to do. The hardest part is not having any information to make a good decision.
Mica Lake is one gorgeous blue lake. Wow, so clear, fish jumping, just amazing. Decided to stay here tonight. Perfect place to clean up and rinse some clothes.
August 1st: Miles: 14 Vista Creek
Last night the moon was so bright it was tough to sleep. We could see the fire burning as it lit up the horizon. We found out later that the huge plume of smoke is not from the Blankenship fire, but from the Wolverine fire near Lake Chelan. We started out early as we had a huge elevation gain to hike and we wanted to beat the sun and heat. We had heard that the brush on both sides of the trail made it difficult to hike. First we had the long downhill to do, then cross over the Milk Creek, and then a three hour hike up switchbacking thru the brush. Had to take it slow and steady as a wrong foot placement could send you tumbling down to the bottom. And this was just the morning. By lunchtime, the black flies and horseflies had rediscovered me and I was forced back into a long shirt and pant leggings. We watched the huge plumes of smoke while eating lunch. The spider webs were totally irritating, but that's part of the animal world. Met a thru hiker named Misery who was from Buffalo, New York, and he was doing 30 plus days. The rest of the afternoon we spent hiking downhill for miles and miles. This part of the trail is not maintained so we had to either climb over and crawl under fallen trees. We had hoped to make another five miles and spend the night near the Suiattle Trail, but we were pretty pooped by 5:30pm, so we stopped at Vista Creek (14 mile day). A northbound hiker stopped by and said she had a message for us - Jingle Bell and Mike ran into trouble trying to get off the trail by going out Kennedy Springs. Apparently the bridge was washed away so they turned around and headed back south on the PCT. I hope they are doing okay as Mike had given most of his food away to the Swiss guy and Jingle Bell had given some of her snacks to Cheryl and I. I'm sure I will hear all about it when I return home!
August 2nd: Miles: 12 Forced Off the Trail from Fire Closure
It was five miles to the Suiattle trail turnoff and it such easy walking compared to yesterday. Just before the bridge, there were these huge trees, you couldn't help but stop and gawk at them. Just after the bridge at the Suiattle trail intersection, another section hiker Cynthia was waiting for us as there were signs posted everywhere that all northbound trails leading into Stehekin were closed (dated Aug 1st). The information recommended hiking the seven miles to the trailhead parking lot and hitching rides to Rainy Pass. So off we went as fast as we could so we could be there by noon to catch any campers in the campground and beg a ride at least into Darrington. Once we arrived, there were about 30 cars at the trailhead but no people. Cynthia hiked down the road to the campground and was dismayed to discover that the campground was closed. So we settled in for the duration waiting for hikers or backpackers to arrive out of the hills. Being a Sunday we assumed the weekend crowd would be out shortly, take pity on us and take us out of there. About 30 minutes later, three backpackers came off the trail and was willing to take one of us down. Cynthia had already talked to a gal on the trail who was going for a day hike with her dogs and was willing to take her out. So I took the opportunity to go. I exchanged phone numbers with Cheryl so we could connect when they arrived in Darrington. Meanwhile, my husband was following my SPOT and was already on his way from Lake Sammamish to fetch me from Darrington. There was no cell service until we hit the Darrington town limits so it was quite a relief to have a text message pop up on my phone saying he was an hour away. The calvary to the rescue! Since I had planned to take a zero day in Stehekin, I decided to take it at Lake Sammamish instead. Later that evening I finally received a phone call from Cheryl saying that they got a ride and that they were actually on their way to Rainy Pass. They really wanted to continue hiking with me, and I them, so we make plans to meet up on Wednesday at noon at Rainy Pass. They had to hike down to Stehekin (20 miles) to fetch their resupply for the last section. I really hope everything works out for them and I see them on Wednesday. Whew, what a mess this fire reroute has caused. There is no cell service anywhere so I won't know until I arrive at Rainy Pass.
August 5th: Miles: 10 Rainy Pass - Back on the Trail
After a two zero days, it was time to hit the trail again. I had a wonderful time with my husband and our two friends Reid and Susan. They spoil me terribly by feeding me gourmet foods. Got my laundry done, and of course the hot showers were wonderful.
Dave and Reid dropped me off at Rainy Pass noon. I expected a short day but was able to put in 10 miles. I surprised myself on how strong I felt going up 2000 feet. I ran into a gal who was attempting to solo hike from Rainy Pass to Manning Park but I have my doubts if she will make it. She was stopping every 100 feet in the first 1/2 mile. Three quarters of the way up it started to rain. Out came the rain jacket and the pack cover. I got to the campsite just in time to set up camp before it really started to rain. It was the first time I used my stove inside my tent. Prepped for bed, fell asleep, and was awoken by two thru hikers who came in late. Exchanged pleasantries and went back to bed. Rained all night.
August 6th: Miles: 20 Harts Pass
Woke up to fog and major condensation. It was also pretty cold. Packed up and headed north. The thru hikers zoomed away never to be seen again. I put in 10 miles by noon and arrived at Glacier Pass. It was go/no go decision. I could either dawdle around or go for another 10 miles. The issue was, there was no water to be had until Harts Pass. I sat and ate lunch with a pretty deer eating a little bit away from me. I decided to go for it. The next two miles was a killer uphill, it took me 1.5 hours to get to the top. It was still pretty coolish. I ran into a handful of day hikers and backpackers going southbound. At the 18th mile I thought it would never end. I should have taken the shortcut thru the Meadows Campground. Finally arrived at Harts Pass and come to find out it costs $ 8 to camp! I found a little spot to camp at, albeit illegally according to the sign, and make dinner and got ready for bed. I haven't found any water yet, that will be a stopping point if I can't find any. There has to be some somewhere, all the other hikers are apparently finding it. I knocked on the Rangers door to no effect. Oh, got my first blister on the side of my foot. I guess my feet weren't ready for a 20 miler.
August 6th: Miles: 16 Campsite Mile Marker CS2635
Last night was pretty interesting. It was quite chilly too. At 3:00am, I woke to noises near my tent. My heart pounding, I clapped my hands and yelled "go away"! Not 15 minutes later, the animal was back. It sounded like it was trying to get at my food bag. I yelled again. Off it went. And of course it came back. The moon was very bright and I could see a silhouette of a deer staring at me. Then it hit me, I forgot to bring in my second hiking pole! It was chewing on my pole! It was licking the sweat off it. The deer finally dashed off to bother someone else and I looked around but didn't see my pole. I laid there awhile thinking of this deer "raid" and also listening to someone snoring four sites away. Finally fell back to sleep and didn't wake until 6:30am. The fog had rolled in and soaked everything. I got up and found my pole a few yards away covered in deer slobber. I was happy that she didn't bite the fabric and it was still in one piece. Still hadn't found water yet, but I wasn't planning on using that pole until I got it cleaned up. I took a leisurely couple of hours drying the tent, sleeping bag, and pieces of clothing.
According to the maps there was a seasonal creek about a 1/2 away. Yay, it was still running. Filled the water bottles and then spent quite a bit of time cleaning the handle and strap of my pole. Finally got moving on the trail. Very pretty. I could see the smoke from the fires south of me. The trail was much easier than yesterday! Ran into quite a few southbounders, but most of them were doing a loop of some sort. They really helped me out with the water sources as water has become hard to find. There is a seasonal stream that is still flowing at the foot of Tamarack Peak. Nine miles later I found a better flowing stream at mile marker 2634. Hikers recommended that I tank up here as there is very little water available until Hopkins Lake. I hope to reach Hopkins Lake tomorrow.
August 8th: Miles: 9 Hopkins Lake
Dang deer, kept me up all night. In the morning this deer came right up to me even though I was yelling at her to go away. She was very thin, not sure what was up with that. Decided to eat my breakfast on the trail to get away from the deer. At first she followed me for a bit until I hiked out of her territory. I ate breakfast at Rock Pass. I could see where people had attempted to take the old PCT trail over to Woody Pass. It looked nasty; no worries, I wasn't going to attempt it! The more north I travel, the more beautiful the terrain was. I was dragging along, especially uphill to Woody Pass, stopping frequently. On the other side I could a horizontal haze that had to come from a fire somewhere. I ran into a young man who was hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail, the one that runs east to west from Glacier National Park to the ocean. He told me he had to do a lot of bushwhacking to find the trail. He also told me he stayed at Hopkins Lake the night before and there were a male and female deer looking for salty clothes. Great, more deer. On I went until I was looking down at Hopkins Lake. I was surprised on how much downhill there was. My original plan was to arrive at the lake, eat lunch, and then hike the six miles and back to the Border Monument. That plan went out the window, and I decided to take a short day (nine miles) to clean up and do some laundry. I'd do the Monument trip in the morning. Thunder clouds rapidly moved in, the temperature fell quickly, and suddenly we were having a thunderstorm and big blotches of rain. Decided to take advantage of being in the tent and had a snooze. Woke up, made dinner, the rain stopped, out for a potty break, and then back to bed.
August 9th: Miles: 12 Still at Hopkins Lake
Felt much better this morning, got a solid nights sleep, and wasn't bothered by any deer. So my plan today was to zip on down to the Border Monument, zip back, and start the return trip back to Harts Pass. I left my tent and most of my stuff safely stowed in it, only took enough to get me there and back. My oh my, my pack was light! The six miles down was very easy terrain. It's interesting how you'll be hiking along and suddenly here is an American flag and right after is the Monument! I was quite taken back on how emotional I got. What a sap I am. After getting my emotions under control, I took a bunch of pictures as I was never going to see it again. Washington is finished!
On the return trip to Hopkins Lake, I ran into two thru hikers, Bipolar and Flash. Had a quick conversation and wished them the best for their last few miles of their PCT adventure. Bipolar gave me two Snickers bars to pass on to Cheryl and Quinn who apparently were about 15 miles back. It was almost 2pm when I arrived back at the lake and getting quite warm. What the heck, I had plenty of food and extra coffee! Time for coffee! Let's stay another night! I sat perched on a rock after cleanup, with my solar charger charging my phone and simply enjoyed the moment of being one with nature. It's amazing what you see when you stay still for a couple of hours. Watched two birds with bugs in their beaks and discovered their nest next to the lake. Took a few pics of three babies in the nest. The next thing I knew, I heard whooping and hollering and it was Cheryl, Quinn, All Day Long, Fault, and Sensai. Spent some time filling each other in on what's been happening plus getting some valuable info from All Day Long about hiking in the desert. They all decided to hike on down to the Border Monument and spend the night there. I made my homemade spaghetti and continued watching nature until the mosquitoes drove me to bed.
Note: I was dismayed to discover that my "new" batteries in my SPOT went dead this afternoon. I'm going to pull my batteries from my headlamp and try to use them to at least send an OK tomorrow evening. I hope they will have enough juice to send the signal on Tuesday so my husband will pick me up at Harts Pass!
August 10th: Miles: 18 Almost to Harts Pass
I woke up in the middle of the night with a thought - it's only 24 miles back to Harts Pass, I can do that in one day! So off I went at 6:30am hoofing it back to Harts Pass. I ran into Karen, the gal I briefly met back at the start on Rainy Pass. She said this trip has been quite an eye opener and she has learned many things about herself. The most important one is to not carry a 50 lb pack in the future! A while later I met a gal who was from Hood River! We spend some time gabbing about people we knew and about backpacking. I also ran into Marmot who was hoping to finish the trail today. Apparently he has had his trail name for 40 years. Very cool. This wasn't the most pleasant of days for hiking as the smoke had rolled in and it smelled like fire smoke. It was so thick that it blocked out the sun and all the views. The evening showed the sun as one bright orange-red disk in the sky. About mile 16 I started to fade. My feet didn't want to do another climb. I stopped to treat myself with Jellie Bellies. Stopped at the last water supply and filled up containers for dry camping. This is my last night on the trail for the trip. This section hike feels very short, like I'm not done yet. I tried to turn on my SPOT using my headlamp batteries but they didn't work because they weren't lithium. I grabbed the original three and was able to turn the SPOT on and hopefully it sent the OK message. This should que my husband to come fetch me tomorrow. I hope. I camped at Windy Pass, not the prettiest campsite here, but it works. I feel good that I got 18 miles in today.
Of all the people I have met on the trail this trip, there is one person that really made an impact. I came behind a young woman doing an odd shuffle, sort of like someone with multiple blisters. I asked if everything was all right, she said yes, that she had a heart and lung condition that required her not to let her heart rate rise above a certain point. She had medication with her if anything went wrong. Then she said, wasn't this the most beautiful day, the most amazing scenery, and she was so glad she could be out here. I looked around at the smoke filled valleys, the occasional white ash floating down, and then at her face which spoke volumes on this chance to be outside. And I totally agreed with her. Doesn't that put everything in our lives in perspective? It did for me.
August 11th: Miles: 5 Section Hike Done
Such a lovely quiet night. My ears have just loved the silence on this section hike. A wonderful break from all the electronic noises we all endure in our technology based world. So here was the big moment - did the SPOT OK signal work last night and will my husband show up today? I broke camp and hit the trail about 7:45am at a nice quick stroll pace. Stopped about a 1.5 miles from Harts Pass to eat my last Snickers bar and to enjoy the view. Three nice older gentlemen from Spokane were coming down the trail and stopped for a chat. One of their phones pinged and they exclaimed, "there's cell service here!", dropped their packs and all three pulled out their phones. It was pretty hilarious. As I watched them push buttons, I realized that I hadn't immediately pulled out my phone to check for service. It was nice to realize that my "always online addiction" could be broken. But yes, I did pull it out and check out of curiosity. One bar, but no ATT service. No worries... We parted ways and as I was nearing Harts Pass at 10am, I heard all this persistent car honking. I stopped and looked up and there was my husband!!!! That last SPOT OK worked! He had left at 5am for the five hour drive north and we met on the last mile of my hike. What a great guy. As we were driving down the gravel road we came upon Alpine Bunny, a guy from France hiking down the road hoping for a hitch. We picked him up and had a great visit about web design and maintenance (the business we both do), and then dropped him off in Mazama. The rest of the drive back to Lake Sammamish was filled with catch-up info. Found out that he was worried about not getting any SPOT responses for two days, so he called the SPOT service to ensure nothing was wrong with the device. I now know I will carry TWO fresh battery supplies from now on. Actually, my husband said, how about we buy a Sat phone for next year? I'm Gadget Girl, how could I say no....
This wraps up my section hike for this year. I met so many interesting people, experienced my first fire reroute, dealt with irritating deer, learned I can hike bigger miles than I thought, and can't wait for next year when I tackle California!