Month: September 2016

It rained all night, and all morning. I had to pack up my tent in the rain, getting everything soaked.

It continued to drizzle all morning, and fog gradually moved in to obstruct the scenery. Washington is clearly trying to tell the hikers they’ve overstayed their welcome.

Eventually, the fog became more of a whiteout, and the drizzle became strong rain. As the rain worsened, I happened to pass mile 2600.

It rained more and more, and the trail began to get overgrown. The bushes wiped water on us, ensuring every exposed surface was soaked. The trail became more like a creek than a trail. Washington was doing what it does best.

By 3 in the afternoon, we were thoroughly wet and cold. Hiking fast uphill helped, but when I stopped to go to the bathroom, I cooled down enough that I was shaking. Elizabeth was none too warm either, so we decided to make camp early and try to get dry.

Most of the nearby campsites were puddles, but we found some dry space, and pitched our tents. Unsurprisingly, they were still soaked, so getting dry inside them would be a challenge. We were soaked too, further complicating the matter of getting the inside of the tent dry. But, with a lot of work with my pack towel, I at least got rid of all the puddles, and set up my sleeping pad and quilt.

That warmed me up at first, but now I’m getting colder. A bit of rain comes down through my rain fly somehow, making my quilt damp. It’s only about 6PM as I write this, and I’m shivering in bed.

This isn’t going to be a good night.

49 miles left. And not one too few.

The bus to the trailhead (via the bakery) didn’t leave until 9:15, so we had time to spare in the morning. I chose to use it productively, by going down to the restaurant and having a milkshake for breakfast.

The chocolate ice cream last night had been terrific, but this morning they had no chocolate left. So I fell back on their most interesting flavor, raspberry mint.

The milkshake didn’t quite fill the time, so I spent more time in the lodge lobby reading National Geographic issues from the early ’80s, and trying to figure out how I’ll get home. It turns out, train companies tend to have awful web sites where buying a ticket is nigh unto impossible. Who’d’ve thought companies selling 19th century technology would have trouble with 21st century commerce.

By and by, the bus showed up, and soon enough we were at the bakery.

I enthusiastically ordered a large breakfast of baked goods, forgetting I’d already had a breakfast milkshake.

There was no time to eat in the store, so I ate my breakfast on the shaky bus ride to the trailhead. The giant cinnamon roll was good, but I think I lost half the frosting in my unkempt hiker beard.

At last, we arrived at the trailhead, gave away surplus food, and started hiking. Soon enough, there were no signs of civilization nearby.

Otherwise, the trail was fairly uneventful today. It was mostly either damp Washington forest or clearings with vine maple.

There were many bridge crossings over creeks today, though none of the creeks were really high enough to need bridges.

We also had our last paved highway crossing today, at a place called Rainy Pass on Washington Highway 20.

Just across the highway, we were warned of a hornet’s nest on the trail. We were warned by five hikers, a trail angel, a Post-It, Pathfinder back in Snoqualmie Pass, and this piece of paper:

When we got to the area with the hornet nest, I put on my hat, gloves, and head net, and walked on by. I didn’t actually notice the nest, I just heard a low buzzing from the ground.

Further up the trail, we got a few views back in the general direction of Rainy Pass, but we were mostly under tree cover.

We camped with a thru-hiker from Nepal. He described how his parents had difficulty understanding what he was doing.

It began to rain as we slept.

66 miles left.

The shuttle to Stehekin leaves at 12:30, 15 miles from here. We got up early, and hiked fast.

Stehekin is the last town on the PCT. There is no way to drive into Stehekin — its roads don’t connect. To get there, you either have to take a ferry or sea plane to the dock on Lake Chelan, or you have to hike to the Stehekin road system and ride the shuttle into town. It has no power lines or telephone lines to the outside world. It has a bakery, post office, ranch, vegetable garden, and lodge.

A shower and hot meal sounded awfully good. So I hiked fast, running on the downhills, and not taking pictures.

The effort paid off, and we were within range of the shuttle with time to spare. Washington’s terrain had been easy on us this morning.

We caught the shuttle with well over 20 other hikers, and rode the bumpy ride into town. It stopped briefly at the bakery for everybody to get lunch — their chocolate coffee cake was delicious.

Once in Stehekin proper, we were lucky — we got the last room in the lodge. We picked up our resupplies, did laundry and showers, and stared out at Lake Chelan.

The lodge had an attached restaurant, and I filled up on their Fettuccini and their fried green beans. I didn’t have room for a milkshake, so I just ordered ice cream.

This was a mistake. The ice cream was delicious, I should’ve had it in milkshake form.

After dinner, we had beer on the deck, read through decades-old copies of National Geographic in the lounge, and went to bed.

89 miles left.