Category: PCT Washington

Traveling to mile 652.1 (Walker Pass) to hike north to mile 1092.3 (Echo Lake Chalet) – August 17 – 20

The Greyhound Bus has been discontinued in Manning Park, Canada  and will be discontinued in western Canada. This makes interesting travel for people with no cars.

I spent the night at The Last Resort Hostel in MP. Cache22 and about every other hiker I knew hitched out of town as soon as they could. It was a difficult hitch. In the meantime I made friends and called on existing friends with the hope to get a ride the next day. In the end, a Cross Country Ski Club from Vancouver gave me a ride from MP all of the way to the front door of the Vancouver train/bus station. Along the way they took me to Coaquihilla in Hope, Canada where there are trails going through old railway tunnels. There is also a raging stream with salmon waiting their turn to jump up the falls. My first time seeing salmon in the wild.

The tunnels.

The stream below the tunnels.

I spent the night at The Last Resort Hostel in MP. Cache22 and about every other hiker I knew hitched out of town as soon as they could. It was a difficult hitch. In the meantime I made friends and called on existing friends with the hope to get a ride the next day. In the end, a Cross Country Ski Club from Vancouver gave me a ride from MP all of the way to the front door of the Vancouver train/bus station. Along the way they took me to Coaquihilla in Hope, Canada where there are trails going through old railway tunne

I had to catch a Greyhound bus that was an 11 hour ride to Portland, OR. It wouldn’t arrive until 6 am. Fortunately, Gust hopped on the bus a few stops before Seattle where I had a layover. What a coincidence! Last time I saw Gust, he was hiking the 30 miles south from the border to Hart’s Pass. He didn’t have a Canadian Entry Permit. Gust was getting a ride through Portland and on to Cascade Locks from Lady Bruce. I ditched the bus and the rest of my bus ticket and rode with Gust and Lady Bruce to PCT Days at Cascade Locks. We arrived at 4 am and I set up my tent on Thunder Island and got some sleep. For the next day and a half I was at PCT days. 

Here is left to right, me, Cactus, Spicy Thai, Karen Winkel, and Pete Winkel. We had done Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie together in July 2015. Cactus and Spicy 

Here I am with Pete.

I bought new ALtra shoes at PCT days. Here are the old shoes.

Other photos from PCT days.

After PCT days, Cache22 and I took a shuttle back to Portland where we took an overnight train to Sacramento. After local rail and bus and walk, we finally reached Cache22’s house. I resupplied and the next day Cache22 drove me all of the way to Walker Pass via the scenic route.

 

 

Day 117

At Northern Terminus of PCT, mile 2652.6. on August 16, 2018, around 9 AM. Hiked 6.4 PCT miles today. Hiked an additional 8.4 miles to Manning Park, Canada.

Everything’s gonna be alright.

At the end of the line.

—The Traveling Wilbury’s.

It is only a short hike to the border. The anticipation of reaching the northern terminus monument is almost overwhelming. Here is some of the scenery along the way.

 

Nearing the end, I reached a spot where I could view the long slash cut through the forest that marks the US/Canadian border.

At the PCT monument on the border, I celebrated by dancing to my PCT theme song and posing for photos with the monument. Selfie took these photos. Just to be clear, these are not selfies, the trail name of the hiker was Selfie. Cache 22 was already at the terminus when I arrived. Extra Mile hiked up shortly after my arrival. Lightning showed up and then at least 4 others followed.

 

“Trying to find.

Trying to find.

Where I’ve been.”

—Led Zeppelin 

    from Kashmir

And I was looking back and thinking.

 

At mile 2646.2. Hiked 26.4 miles today.

Excitement is building because today we will end only 6 miles short of Canada.

A new kind of tree

After passing Hart’s Pass I began to see Larches.  Larches are only found in the far north, commonly in Canada and Siberia. These trees are deciduous. Their needles change color and drop off in the autumn.

For hikers without a Canadian Entry Permit, they can only hike to the border, then turn around and hike 30 miles back to Hart’s Pass. In other words, they hike that same 30-mile stretch twice. I know a number of hikers that had to do this.

Here is a photo of some Larches. 

 

The Canadian Entry Permit

For hikers without a Canadian Entry Permit, they can only hike to the border, then turn around and hike 30 miles back to Hart’s Pass. In other words, they hike that same 30-mile stretch twice. I know a number of hikers that had to do this.

It is still hazy.

Another trail photo.

A mile away by trail, I can already see Lake Hopkins, our destination for the night.

Now a little closer to Lake Hopkins.

By the time I arrived at Lake Hopkins, I was spent from the heat and hard climbs over the day’s marathon distance. Several Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) thru-hikers passed by the lake. These hikers were following the PNT from Glacier National Park to the Pacific Ocean at Olympic National Park. Without much in the way of support on this less blazed and less-traveled trail, these hikers looked a couple of degrees more rugged than us PCT thru-hikers. Selfie was already in camp with his tent set up. He invited everyone to share a taste of his celebratory wine on the eve of reaching the Canadian border. Later on, Extra Mile showed up. She had put in a long day so that the next morning she could celebrate at the border with other hikers.

Camping at Lake Hopkins.

At mile 2619.8 Hiked 31 miles today.

It was very smoky so although I hiked across some high places with normally great views, today I couldn’t see very much. The smoke was so thick that I could feel it when I breathed.

Beautiful water source.

The smoky trail.

Nearing the end of a long day. 

Late in the day, I was hiking about 20 minutes ahead of Another Mile when she had a Mountain Lion run across the trail right in front of her.

At mile 2588.8. Hiked 16.8 miles today.

I had to wait until 10 am for the Post Office to open. My resupply arrived okay, but the postal service lost my bounce box. I’ll continue to ask them to look for it, but I don’t need it for now. The box has warm clothing and the weather hasn’t turned cold yet. In fact, it is very hot here near the Canadian border.

(Months later after a number of phone calls and reporting to the USPS, I finally received the bounce box at my home in Roswell, GA. It turned out that I had sent it to Skykomish, not Stehekin.)

I had to wait until 11:30 am for the shuttle departing Stehekin for the trail. Along the way, the shuttle stopped at the renowned Stehekin Pastry Company.  Hikers poured out of the bus to stock up on calories. They purchased loads of their favorite pastries. I split a giant sticky bun with Cache22. With the late start, we weren’t on the trail until 12:30 pm. The bus was pretty well loaded with PCT hikers because, like me, others had been waiting for packages on the Monday morning opening of the post office. This created a surge or mini-bubble of hikers as soon as we all hit the trail. I was one of the last off the bus, but I set out at a fast pace on the uphill climb. It wasn’t long before I moved beyond the crowd. 

The famous Stehekin Bakery.

I continued hiking well out in front of nearly everyone until I came across a bear grazing on blueberries. I was able to take plenty of photos because he didn’t move away.  That was good and bad because after taking all the photos I wanted, I realized that the bear was uncomfortably close to the trail I needed to walk. I shouted at him to get him to move on. Instead of running away as I expected, he moved a little closer and mounted a boulder overlooking my position. At that point, a little shaken, I backed away until I was out of his sight. Only a few minutes earlier Space Jam had caught up with me and had been following only 30 yards behind. Where was he now? Where was Space Jam when you needed him? I finally turned around and began walking south in search of reinforcements when Space Jam and Ron came walking up. They asked why I was walking the wrong way. I told them about the bear. Together, we walked back to the bear. After the bear realized he was outnumbered, but particularly after Space Jam bravely went first, the bear reluctantly moved a little further away from the trail allowing us to pass without incident.

Here are a few photos of this bear.