August 21, 2016

Five Mile Camp (mile 2564.3) to High Bridge (mile 2569.4)

Miles: 5.1

Our total miles:2163.1

We both slept hard and well. There is no longer a concern about not sleeping well while backpacking. The trick is to walk so far that when you allow yourself to get horizonal, you fall asleep. 

And our new pads are glorious. They keep us so warm that even Andy, who sleeps much cooler than Laurie, has slept in quilt mode for much of the last week.

We wanted to catch the 9:15 shuttle from High Bridge so, although we both felt like we could have slept forever, we started to move.

We were walking by 6:30. It was mostly downhill to the ranger station and bridge. The sky looked clear and we couldn’t smell any smoke. We were not sure if the fire was put out, the wind had shifted or if we were now far enough north. Whatever the reason it felt good to be breathing fresh air again.

We hiked down through the forest, past small creeks and alongside the roaring South Fork of the Agnes Creek.

The creek formed a large gorge through which it traveled and we walked above. The steep cliffs were a new sight for our eyes, now accustomed to only green foliage and brown dirt.

We got to the Ranger Station and bus stop around 8:30. We recognized Sam but there were at least 10 other unfamiliar faces milling around.

“Where did all of these people come from?” we asked one another.

During the day we see nobody. Lately, it is when we get to camp that we see others, mostly section hikers since some thru hikers camp later than us.

Today, people just kept coming. Many had hiked to Stehekin from Cascade Pass or other starting points to the north. Eventually there were over 30 hikers waiting for the shuttle. Some in their early teens and others in their 60s. 

As the bus pulled up familiar faces departed – all smiling – including Lux, Nemo, and Rob and Christa! We were so bummed we never got to hike with Rob and Christa. It was nice to finally meet them in person but we were both overwhelmed and distracted that we didn’t know what to say. 

We and 30 others piled into the bus and headed down the bumpy dirt road to the bakery.  

We got a salad, sticky bun, cinnamon roll and muffin. We demolished the last three within 30 minutes. Laurie decided to make today a gluten holiday – there was just too much sugary goodness to pass up. But the salad was a huge dissappintment. It was small and very expensive ($10 for a large that wasn’t very big).

Stehekin is a small tourist town. It is accessible only by plane, boat or foot. It is quaint, beautiful and would have been a wonderful place to take a zero but we were on a time line.

We wandered around the boat dock, got a permit to camp within North Cascade National Park and explored the hiker box while waiting for the Stehekin Valley Ranch white school bus to make its way to the boat dock.

Laurie had stayed at the ranch with her mom in the past and we hoped they would have availability. They offer fancy and rustic cabins and 3 meals/day.

We were in luck and got a cute rustic cabin for the night!

The Stehekin Valley Ranch is nestled up the valley away from the activity of the lodge and boat dock. We ate meals staring out at sunflowers and open fields. 

We arrived just in time for lunch. “Showers and laundry can wait. Let’s eat!”

Andy had a cheeseburger, a grilled cheese sandwich, meat and veggie soup and two chocolate chip cookies while Laurie ate two cheeseburgers, two bags of chips and an apple.

The burgers were delicious! 

Satiated, we happily left the dining hall to grab our dirty clothes for laundry. 

“I’ve never been this filthy walking into town.” remarked Andy when looking at his clothes. And since we had been sweating profusely everyday since Snoqualmie Pass his clothes were stiff from all the salt deposits. 

Once clean, we went back to the room where Laurie enjoyed an epic nap.

An hour after lunch we were hungry again but dinner wasn’t until 5:30, so we distracted ourselves with our to do lists. We edited blog posts, walked around and tried to get online. 

The Internet was very slow so we gave up on trying to do anything more than reach out to family and let them know we were ok. 

At 6 o’clock the dinner bell rang. We made our way back to the dining hall for an all you can eat roast chicken dinner. 

We inhaled mashed potatoes, salad, chicken, carrots and swiss chard, and garlic bread.

One plate was enough for both of us to be content. “I haven’t had swiss chard in 4 months” Laurie said excitedly as she savored the green leaves. 

Overall the food was ok, but most disappointing was dessert. Laurie’s been looking forward to pie for days. And when she was here a few years ago she remembers having all you can eat dessert. Now, we were only allowed one piece of either cake or pie. 

When Laurie went up for a second piece of pie and was rejected, she felt disappointed and ashamed. We had chosen to not buy pie from the bakery anticipating we’d get pie for dessert and unfortunately Laurie was let down. 

We sat in the dining hall, savoring what was left of Andy’s slice of blueberry pie. The ladies next to us started chattin with Laurie, asking if she was hiking the PCT.

We chatted for about 20 minutes and eventually the conversion turned to food. Laurie stated her disappointment with just one piece of pie, and Polly, who had passed on dessert said, “what would you like? I haven’t had a slice yet.”

With glee, Laurie took Polly up on her offer. She was once again happy and excited. After enjoying a piece of sour cream pear pie we left the dining hall, retrieved our charging phones from the men’s showers and went to bed. 

It was 8:45pm and Laurie was starting to write. Andy encouraged her to put her phone down and go to bed early. At 9:15 Andy blew out the kerosene lantern and we went to bed. 

Tonight we are grateful for available cabins and kind, giving strangers.

August 20, 2016

Miners Creek (mile 2541.9) to Five Mile Camp (mile 2564.3)

Miles: 22.4

Our total miles: 2158

We slept like rocks. The sound of the creek muffled all noise around us.

We headed out of camp with Ed around 7 am. The trail very gently climbed up towards Suiattle Pass. We talked as we walked – Ed asking us questions about our experiences on the trail and us asking him questions about his life. It is amazing how fast the miles go when caught up in good conversation.

We stopped to dig a hole and Ed continued on. The trail meandered past multiple clear and cold streams. The twists and turns of the trail felt so gentle that although we were climbing it felt like we were walking on flat ground. 

It feels great walking on gently graded switchbacks! We are aware we’ve mentioned this numerous times but it really is that nice.

We were pleasantly suprised that the air was less smoky this morning. There was still a haze which lessened the dramatic views but at least our throats and noses didn’t burn.

We caught glimpses of Glacier Peak and tried to make out other peaks and glaciers through the haze. 

We stopped to pick blueberries and attempted to fill a Talenti for dessert but the sun was too intense. With no breeze it felt like we were standing directly under a heat lamp. After 10 minutes and 1/5 of a Talenti worth, we were walking again.

From the top of Suiattle Pass we descended into a basin. We washed our faces in a creek and took a short break in the shade, staring out at a wall of rock. 

We switchbacked down, out of the boulder fields and back into the trees.

Here we discovered super ripe and sweet huckleberries and thimbleberries.

We were both immersed in the bushes when Sam, an Aussie thru hiker, joined the picking party. We talked and picked and hiked until we found another good patch of either berry.

We had heard of Sam from Nemo and thought he was ahead of us. Upon meeting, Andy recognized him from the desert. We had started around the same time and had chatted briefly around mile 85. Neither Laurie nor Sam had any recollection of this but it didn’t matter. It was nice to see him..again.

We descended through overgrown bushes, trying not to trip over rocks or roots that lay underneath. 

We crossed the South Fork of the Agnes Creek by walking on a huge fallen tree. There was a large river bed but only one third contained running water. The fallen tree spanned the entire river bed. 

Laurie took a quick dip in the river to revitalize herself. She does not do well in the heat. She feels sluggish, her feet swell and she gets grumpy. Cheese, candy and cold water help bring the smile back to her face.

Once her internal temperature had dropped to a comfortable level, we continued on, walking through the forest. Despite being in the shade, it was hot. Near creeks we enjoyed brief reprieves.

“I am tired.” reported Laurie. She was tired of being hot, sticky, dirty and stinky. We had walked more miles per day in this section than the majority of other sections. And with not enough sleep she could feel her body starting to rebel.

“We are almost there, you can do this” reassured Andy. “And tomorrow you can have pie!”

This brought a smile to Laurie’s face. “Yum pie, I can do anything for pie!”

With 3 miles until camp we stopped for ‘happy hour.’ We soaked our feet in cold creek water and shared our last chunk of cheese. 

Laurie was hungry today. Apparently she had donated too much of her food to the hiker box at Stevens Pass. 

Tomorrow we will be going into town with only bars (2 for Laurie and 4 for Andy). It feels good to know that we are not carrying excess weight but it is uncomfotable being hungry most of the day.

We got to camp around 6:45. Many people we have never seen were already there. We found a flat spot and set up the tent before going down to the creek to rinse off and get water for dinner.

The water in this creek was cold. So much in fact that it hurt to stand in it for more than 30 seconds.

We returned to our tent, Laurie lay down inside while Andy made dinner. The ground was warm from the sun and to Laurie it felt like she was lying on a heating pad.

Eventually the air cooled and we were able to fall asleep.

Tonight we are grateful for sweet thimbleberries and trees to cross rivers.

August 19, 2016

Bushcamp (mile 2516.9) to Miners Creek (mile 2541.9)

Miles: 25

Our total miles: 2135.6

The wind howled most of the night but we slept well. Our wonderful tent kept us warm with its elevated, thin Silnylon panels.

When we awoke we were happy that nothing was wet. Being above tree line condensation was a concern. 

When Andy went to retrieve our Ursacks he noticed one of our sit pads was missing. He hoped it hadn’t been carried too far from our tent by the wind. 

He found it in a drainage about 100 feet from our campsite.

When we left camp around 6:20am the air was smokey and many of the glorious mountains surrounding us were blanketed by haze.

Today it smelled like there was a fire nearby, much more than yesterday. We weren’t very concerned though – at least Andy wasn’t. 

As we switchbacked down to Mica Lake we discussed whether we should have an exit strategy. It’s instances like these when a larger Forest Service map comes in handy. 

Our apps and Halfmile maps cover the PCT but don’t offer much in the way of where side trails and Forest Service roads lead. 

The smoke made for a beautiful sunrise, the sun blood orange and already relentless.

The mountains surrounding Mica Lake were being kissed by the sun when we got there. 

We were glad we camped where we did because there were lots of people camped near the small lake. 

Who can blame them? Mica Lake is really pretty. It reminded us of our favorite alpine lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

One of the people we met today was Sauté. He is section hiking Washington and dealing with lots of gear failures, his water filter being one of them. 

We gave him some Nutrasilver colloidal silver to purify his water as we had extra. Hopefully this relieved some of his worries. 

Past Mica Lake we descended our second series of many switchbacks to come (the first set were descending to the lake).

We were sightly worried about today because we were already tired and were facing a 25 mile day that included 6,000+ feet of elevation gain and over 9000 feet elevation loss. 

Halfway down our worries were relieved since the switchbacks were gently graded. The miles came easy, except for the times when we had to steeply ascend or descend use trails to get around downed trees. 

A few switchbacks before we reached Milk Creek we ran into Billy Goat hiking southbound! Billy Goat is a hiking legend and someone Andy has talked about often on this hike. He is in his 80s and has more than 40,000 PCT miles under his feet. 

We chatted for about 15 minutes before going our separate ways. Billy Goat walked with a slight limp and had a very genuine smile – the type of smile that comes from a content heart.

As we parted ways we took a few steps and turned in his direction, smiling with admiration, only to find him turned around looking towards us with a similar smile. 

After crossing the very fast flowing Milk Creek (Creek? Really? This thing was raging!) we then climbed over 3000 feet on gently graded switchbacks. At times it was hard to breathe given the smoke.

The abundant thimbleberries helped Andy forget about the smoke, but the same can’t be said for Laurie. 

She felt robbed of views. And that she had lost and other people ahead of us had won because they got to see the views and we didn’t.

“What’s the difference between smoke and rain?” Asked Andy. “At least we’re not wet and miserable.”

He’s a voice of reason but sympathizes with Laurie’s feelings. We did all the hard work the last few days to be here, but we don’t get to see any of it.

All we can do is accept that this is what we’re encountering and enjoy what we can. 

Laurie’s nose was burning and her lungs were feeling irritated from the smoke, so she tied her banana over her face, resembling the hiking bandit. 

This didn’t last long though as her dark glasses kept fogging up with each breath. 

On our descent we met and hiked with Bonus Miles. Fires forced him out at Stevens Pass last year. He’s back to finish his thru hike from Stevens Pass to Stehekin. 

We traded stories about the trail and our experiences, and introduced him to thimbleberries. His feet hurt because he hadn’t hiked much before this trip, so we parted ways when he stopped to soak them in a creek. 

We continue to meet people from all walks of life out here for different reasons. It’s great! 

We continued our long descent to the Suiattle River. The old bridge washed out a few years ago, and getting to the new bridge included an extra 7 miles of hiking.  

At first we were annoyed but later it made sense. The river was fast flowing, silty and very wide in some places. At least the 7 mile detour was scenic. We walked through an old growth forest with huge trees. Andy hugged one of them and his arms didn’t even go a third of the way around!

We enjoyed a cheese break once across the bridge. Well… we enjoyed it as much as we could. It was another hot day and at 2000 feet it was muggy.

Laurie was hot and uncomfortable. She was struggling. It’s been a rough section for both of us, but battling the heat was taking its toll on her.

Hopefully cheese and candy help! They can’t hurt right? 

After 15 minutes we were ready to go. The flies have been horrible lately, making breaks unpleasant. Particularly when we get covered by biting horse flies. 

We pushed on to the first crossing of Miner’s Creek. When we arrived the man already camped there greeted us by saying with a big smile, “Hey I know you!”

We smiled too anticipating what he’d say next.

“I read your blog!”

Ed (trail name Enoch Sir Peanut Butter) has been following our hike since the beginning. He is a very friendly guy hiking with Bonus Miles from Stevens Pass to Stehekin.

We love running into people who read our blog. Ed thanked us for journaling on a regular basis. He also told us he really appreciates how we end each post with two things we are grateful for.

We cleaned off in the cold creek, made dinner and went to sleep around 10pm with the creek keeping us cool and the breeze keeping the flies and mozzies at bay.

Tonight we are grateful for gently graded switchbacks and our healthy lungs.