Category: PCT Thru Hike

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.

 

 

 

Hiked to mile 2552.6 at Cloudy Pass trail junction. PCT closed from mile 2552 to 2572 due to Bannock Lake Fire. Hiked 12 PCT miles today. Also hiked approximately 11 miles on Cloudy Pass and Hart and Lyman Lake trails. Hiked another approximate 2 miles around Lyman Lake area when lost. Trail junctions weren’t marked for the PCT closure detour route. Total miles hiked were approximately 25 miles. 

Today is day 112, but having taken a zero-day, it is my 111th day of actual hiking and today is August 11th. It is also my birthday. 

The Ice-Cream Story

The highlight of the day happened when I reached Holden Village 35 minutes after ice-cream hour had ended. I had planned on arriving well before ice-cream hour, but I had gotten lost. Cache 22 having heard I was lost, had bought me a double scoop of huckleberry and sorbet and stashed it in the freezer for me. To have this ice-cream after such an early start and a long 24 miles was a birthday surprise I will never forget.

The Hike

With plans for meals in Holden Village and a boat ride to Stehekin the next day, I was on the trail at 4:40 am with headlamp lighting the way. 

It was cloudy, but the sun appeared with most smoke cleared. This gave me my clearest view of Glacier Peak.

It was finally cooler and the trail led through slightly misty forests.

Time seemed to pass quickly and I had hiked the 11 miles ascending 3000 foot before 9:30 am. I reached this fire closure at the Cloudy Pass trail junction. 

Here is Cloudy Pass on the Cloudy Pass trail. With plenty of clouds, today it lived up to its name.

I came across this lazy Marmot that would rather lay on a boulder than run away.

I reached the Hart and Lyman Lake trail. Here is Lyman Lake.

Here is another view of Lyman Lake from the boulder field above it. At this point, I was well off-trail and trying to figure out which way to go.

Back on the Hart and Lyman Lake trail, I could see waterfalls cascading into a large gorge.

Here I am at the end of the day’s hike eating birthday ice-cream.

 

At mile 2540.6. Hiked 24.1 miles today.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I woke up this morning thinking I was in my bed at home.

I had early morning views of Glacier Peak.

Yet again, there was more blow-down, but not as much as I encountered yesterday.  This one presented an interesting problem. I managed by climbing over.

One last snow crossing. Or will it be the last?

The winding trail.

Mica Lake

Another view of the reflections in Mica lake.

Here I’m having a mid-morning swim in Mica Lake. Having frigid clear water and a low rock ledge serving as a convenient swimming platform, I rated this one a five-star swimming lake!

I liked this boulder nestled in ferns.

I had to carefully resupply my water from this raging creek.

Some views of glaciers.

In the twilight, I walked among old growth Cedar trees along the Suiattle River feeling as if I had stepped back in time thousands of years.

The Suiattle River was running hard. It was nice to have a bridge or this river would have been uncrossable or very nearly so.  Godzilla, Space Jam, and Ron took a 7-mile shortcut via a former PCT route. It required crossing this river via a thin tree that didn’t quite span the entire river.

I ate two suppers. I cooked and ate Ramen noodles and chicken at 5:30 pm during a short hiking break. Later, I had Chili Mac at 7:30 pm in camp. Now it is 8:39 pm and I’m feeling hungry again.

At mile 2515.5. Hiked 28.8 miles today.

I swam in Lake Sally Ann.

Here is the trail.

The cones on this tree were purple.

I ate lunch at Reflection Pond. It was hot and I had looked forward to a swim, but the pond turned out to be shallow and unappealing so I cooled off in the shade instead. Some section hikers gave me some seaweed that they said went well with tuna so I ate tuna-seaweed wraps for the first and probably last time. With harassing flies and mosquitoes, the pond wasn’t the ideal place for a lunch break. Before heading out, I noticed that the pond was at 2500.2 miles so I drew this marker.

There were more open areas and I came across areas where Lupine was growing.

  

I began crossing near a blasting area. As I began a long climb, I had forgotten about the warning signs when suddenly there was an explosion just below where I was walking. It really made me jump. The echo must have lasted 15 seconds as the blast reverberated up and down a long ridge that extended above the deep gorge below where I stood. It was the most incredible echo I have ever heard.

Here is the view of the trail at around the time the explosion went off. I think they must have been doing work on a trail below me.

After a long hot climb on sun-exposed slopes, I crested the ridge to a view of scattered snow patches.

I could see Glacier Peak. 

I descended and descended and began crossing small creeks and soon large creeks.

We stopped at a campsite, ate dinner, and decided to hike another 3-plus miles. We walked through streams of water running down the trail and ended by climbing a great deal. Although the evening hours were cooler, my shirt was completely soaked from perspiration caused by the effort and pace of the climb. There were also many blowdowns to navigate. 

Cache22 finally reached our campsite. I had already picked out a tent spot next to a small creek. These flowers blooming around the creek.

At mile 2486.7. Hiked 22.5 miles today.

Since I was in town to enjoy the modern conveniences of the Cascadia Inn, I got my usual “in town” late start. Trail Angel, Chris gave me a ride up to Stevens Pass, but first I picked up a couple of blueberry muffins at the deli. I’d already had granola cereal and plenty of coffee at the Cascadia.

It was a hot and smoky day. It seemed like my shirt was soaked with sweat all day long. There were some fantastic vantage points for views of Glacier Peak, but smoke obscured the peak.

This is lake Valhalla. I would have liked to have swum in this lake, but it was early for a break and I thought I needed to keep hiking.

This is Lake Janus. I ate lunch here, but the lake was muddy on my shore so I didn’t even dip my feet in the water.

View of Glacier Peak, but so much smoke you can’t see it.

This is Pear Lake. It was late for swimming so I soaked my feet instead. I considered camping here, but ate dinner and rested, then hiked 4 more miles.