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| Sunrise on the PCT, roughly two miles north of Sheets Pass |
I dawdled in Packwood.
I was turned off by the cost of my hotel room the previous night. A hundred dollars for a room with a broken
television and no chairs; I had no idea hotels were getting rid of chairs to
save money these days. I ate a mediocre
breakfast at a nearby dinner, walked across the street, and then stuck my thumb
out. It took an hour, but eventually I
was picked up by a man who owned property nearby, lived in Montana, and had been driving back and forth all week. The truck was littered with empty gas station
coffee cups and the man looked like he had not had a decent night’s sleep in a
week. It probably was not my safest ride
but a ride is a ride. When I arrived
back at the gas station in White Pass my motivation slowly began to fade and I
decided I wanted to eat again. I also
came in about when other hikers starting pouring in, including my old friend Calf. I had not seen other thru-hikers for a week
and was eager to engage in conversation.
I was there long enough that another friendly face came in, Clay. Calf and Clay were just arriving and were in
no rush to leave, in fact they were discussing going into town. It did not take much to convince me to go back
and split a room with these guys. So,
after claiming my resupply package, the three of us went back to the road, and
hitched into town.
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| Pacific Crest Boardwalk |
The following day it seemed like it took an eternity to leave
Packwood. We left at a reasonable hour
in the morning but getting a ride back to White Pass was difficult. It took us two separate hitches to get back to
the pass and it was late enough that we opted to have lunch before
departing. I sensed my laziness returning and even though Clay was not ready to leave, Calf and I bolted while
we could still get some decent miles in.
I was not very excited about leaving so late and I found myself in an awkward position at one point on the trail of having to pass horse riders. They had passed me coming down hill and then
kept stopping in front of me on the narrowest parts of the trail every few
minutes. After awhile I grew sick of the
game with the riders and stepped up my race to a near jog and I refused to slow
down for two hours. I found most of the
trail immediately out of White Pass to be rather uneventful. There was some very interesting trail work in
some areas though, in an effort to keep a trail actually present in some of the wetter areas,
trail crews built boardwalks. I tried
making them a little more interesting by listening to “Love is Strong” by the
Rolling Stones on repeat while strutting down these boardwalks. By the end of the day I impressed myself, I
got in 17.3 miles with what few hours of the day that were left and without a
single break. Calf and I setup camp, at
a curiously labeled Databook entry and alliteration labeled “reliable rill,” with two
ladies who were section-hiking. After
some conversation, a cup of hot chocolate, and a little evening reading I was
burying my head in my mummy bag happy just to be back on the trail.
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| Sunset at Big Crow Basin |
The next day Calf hit the trail earlier than I and I
took off earlier than the two section hikers.
I also decided to continue hiking long stretches and made Anderson Lake,
at a little over seven miles away my first goal. When I got there though I found a number of
campers in sleeping bags along the shoreline closest to the trail; I decided to
continue onto the next lake, Dewey. It
was just two more miles. When I got to
Dewey Lake, I found even more campers with even fewer opportunities to claim a
small space for my own use. I convinced myself I would
then push forward three more miles to Chinook Pass. There was a major highway there and I thought
I might find a picnic table to sit at for a half an hour or so while reading my
book. What I found on the way to Chinook
Pass instead was the greatest density of day hikers I had ever seen on the
Pacific Crest Trail. There were so many that after yielding to the first dozen or so groups, I became upset because of the significantly slower pace required to be courteous to everyone. I plugged in my
headphones, turned on some music, and began pushing through all these day
hikers. I would rush through each large group, smile, yell out "good afternoon" to each person, and allow my headphones and music to deny them any questions. When I reached Chinook Pass I
realized what the problem was, it was a weekend and the pass was also home to
highway 140’s entrance to Rainier National Park. I told myself that if I hiked a little over
two more miles, I would reach Sheep Lake and hopefully a place to rest my
feet. Upon arriving at Sheep Lake
though, I found no more available space than I found at any earlier place. With about 14.5 miles of hiking without a
break I was done, I sat on the trail, ate, smiled at all the day hikers who
walked around me, and half an hour later continued north. The remainder of the trail that day was dry,
rocky, and exposed. I put away my iPod
and pulled out my radio and let Oregon Public Radio help pass the time until I something
else caught my attention. It was Clay,
he was behind me and apparently had been trying to get my attention for ten
minutes. We chatted with each other
until we reached Big Crow Basin. It was
short of both of our goals but it looked inviting enough, and the nearby spring
water was cold, crisp, and refreshing. After a quick dinner of beans and rice and a spectacular sunset, I wondered how far Calf made it that day.
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| Fire damaged section north of Government Meadow |
I had an obsession with getting to Snoqualmie Pass after
leaving White Pass, especially after wasting so much time Packwood. Two friends of mine who I got to know while
hiking the PCT in 2010—Granite and Terrapin—had moved to Seattle after their
thru-hike that year and we had long since talked about seeing each other again
when I hiked through Washington State. In Seattle were two other wonderful 2010 hikers as well, Sweet 16 and Microburst. I had been thinking about a miniature reunion party since I entered Washington. Snoqualmie Pass was the highway I had to reach to get a ride from Granite to Seattle. Realizing how close this pass was, Clay and I
decided to do as many miles as possible in order to make the following day into
town easier. What we ended up doing that
day I never repeated, a 30 plus mile day in Washington. Early that day, the trail was in thick and cool green
forests until Government Meadow. From
there on it traversed many areas that were either burnt or logged. I was not particularly impressed with the
logging areas, although I did find something unexplainably beautiful about the fired-damaged
sections. We had talked about doing 35
miles that day but upon coming across Clay already setting up his tent at 31
miles, it did not take much to convince me to call it a day. We shared and ate what food we both had left
and tried to plan out how on earth we were going to do a little more than 27
miles the following day before 4pm.
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| Early morning low cloud cover |
Clay and I awoke early, ate quickly, and hit the trail heavily
caffeinated. It was cold and wet but I
found myself enjoying the cloud cover.
We camped just below the clouds and punched through them just in time to
watch an amazing sunrise. It was almost
as if the sun were not rising over the horizon but actually thrusting itself
out from amongst the clouds. Being above
the clouds also meant that everything we hiked through was soaked with
condensation that loved to escape from shrubs and attach itself to our feet,
legs, and waists. Since it was also very cold that morning, we had a great incentive to move quickly and without breaks—staying warm. Somewhere just before Mirror Lake I lost
Clay, he was hiking faster than I was able to but I was nonetheless equally determined to
make it to the pass and opted not to take any breaks.
I regretted this pace and mindset in some places. Mirror Lake was a place that I instantly
wanted to stop and enjoy for a few minutes when it first came into view but I
constantly told myself, “just a little further,” until it was too late. The
lake eventually ceased offering a view of itself and I was without a either a break or a photograph. The
closer I got to the pass the more I became comfortable with running
downhill. I was out of food and was not
carrying more than half a quart of water, and I planned on zeroing when I got
to Seattle. I felt I could afford a
slightly greater bodily beating than usual and it worked. I caught up with Clay and we arrived at
Snoqualmie pass around 3pm, more than 27 miles in less than ten hours. We also ran into an old friend, Hawkeye, who passed by us while we gorged on gas station food. We all left the gas station and made our way
to the local hotel and pancake house where we found a number of other friends,
including Calf and Analog. By the time
Granite had arrived from Seattle to pick me up, I felt somewhat sad, because I
knew that zeroing two or three days in Seattle would mean that I would not see
most of the people I had gotten to know so well unless we met again after our
hikes were finished.
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