We started the day knowing we were just 60 miles away from the end. Somewhat last minute, we decided to push 27 miles all the way to Hart’s pass. Mostly because there were no other campsites. We didn’t really want to be pushing larger miles this close to the end because there wasn’t a reason to rush…right? Today’s hike was It was a beautiful start to the morning with instant views of the cascades all around us. The smoke in the air limited the visibility, but didn’t ruin the majestic peaks and valleys for me. It was a really easy hiking day compared to the constant climb we did the day before. By early afternoon we started to see small plumes of smoke north of us. This caused Tim quite a bit of anxiety, and definitely made me nervous. At this point we hadn’t gotten cell service or wifi for a week and didn’t have any updates about the status of fires in northern washington. As far as we knew, the only major concern in the area was the mudslide that closed 10 miles of road out of Hart’s pass but that we could deal with. By later in the afternoon as we came within 10 miles of Hart’s pass we got a better view of the plumes: there were two significant large plumes of smoke north of us, two east/west of us. Knowing there was a ranger at Hart’s pass, Tim pushed quickly to the campsite while I lagged behind more slowly and at berries, knowing these might be my last few of the entire trail. I finished the last 5 miles with Shaman, and we conversed easily about spirituality and hiking. We passed a sign that was updated today with a map of all the fires surrounding the trail and what trails had been closed. Miraculously, the PCT was still open, but every single side trail was closed by a different fire around us. That map had been updated today. By this point, we were all just trying to stay positive, stay together, and stay vigilant. All of us at camp made a plan for the next day (that we had changed at least 5 times to this point): hike 27 miles to a campsite at a junction 3 out from the terminus, potentially drop packed and hike in and out to terminus tomorrow. Knowing we may be hiking 33 miles, we all woke early the following morning.
Brutal climb today out of Stehekin. Almost no descent today, just climbing for 23 miles which really gets to you, especially in another darn heat wave! The heat was extreme, paired with heavy rainfall, which was odd. Unfortunately my ankle started to act up around mile 12, slowing me down for the remaining miles. I had a great hike up the rest of the way with Tango though. Our morning was a blast since the bus stopped at the bakery unexpectedly! We love this bakery. I had two cinnamon rolls, a pesto mushroom onion croissant, and a fruit and cheese danish. That was plenty of calories for the day.
Rainy days are here again! We were so happy to be cold today in off and on rain, mist, fog, and views. We had tons of elevation change, tons of climbs, and all of them with beautiful mountains and rivers. We hit 2,500 miles, so just 150 more to go! The evening ended at a stunning river that kept us asleep all night long with white noise.
We are TIRED. We thought today would be an easy day with just 24 miles, but it ended up being 6000+ feet of elevation gain, 3 climbs, I had cramps the whole day, and we were just very slow moving. Thankfully, there were huckleberries literally the entire day on both sides of the trail to gorge on. We had what I believe to be one of the steepest miles of trail yet at the very end of the day today. More than 1000 feet per mile, up to our campsite which was at the top. Not. A. Fan. On the bright side, it was just us at the campsite and the five of us had some good laughs at the top before tucking in for the night. Love camping with friends!
Just seven miles all up hill, and boy were they eventful. Mile 5, my shoe tore. I already ordered my next pair to be shipped to Stehekin, 180 miles away. These shoes were just not going to make it. After a few minutes of panic and complaining, I called REI to see if there was any way they could help me. The customer service woman saved my butt. She said REI would figure out a way to cancel the pair I had ordered, and send a new pair to Leavenworth by the day I would be arriving, at no additional cost beyond what I had already paid for the other pair. I was so relieved, so amazed, in awe really that they did that for me. Then I had the most stunning trail sunset I may have ever seen. The alpen glow lit up the mountains on the Catwalk just as I got to the top. Stellar 7 miles!
Today we hiked out 10 miles to make it to Snoqualmie pass by 8:45! The early start had us both on the wrong foot, with cramps to start out the day unfortunately, but the miles passed, we had imromptu trail magic, and got breakfast with Mimosa’s sister and Dad in “town” which was great. The drive was long so we took a pit stop in Yakima. What a town. We got new clothes at the goodwill, mine consisting of a romper and swimsuit, while Tim got a dress. We also went to McDonalds. Mimosa and Breakingbad unfortunately got very sick when we finally made it to Cascade Lockes. We think they had Norovirus or food poisoning. So the rest of us went to the trail says location and signed up for raffles and saw some friends, getting dinner at a different brewery than before. We saw many trail celebrities including Jupiter, Josh Perry (FKT holder), and the Daley family (2 parents, 3 kids under 5 hiking the trial this year). Loving it!
This was probably the most gorgeous day of hiking I’ve ever done, followed by the worst night of mosquito hell I’ve ever endured. Sometimes when days are bookended with badness, I avoid writing about them for a bit to get some better perspective. Now writing a few days later, what really stuck from the day was how amazing Goat Rocks and the Knife’s edge were. Over just 5 miles we saw so much beauty, with 360 degree views of Ranier, Adams and St. Helens, paired with stunning craggy climbing and snow fields. Then on the walk down we got incredible wildflowers. We were completely blown away! White Pass was also quite nice, a gas station with some hot food and resupply stuff. There were probably around 30 hikers there when we were, everyone laughing while doing chores and eating as much as they could. Leaving white pass started out sentimental, then turned into a race against time as we quickly lost our sanity through six miles of hiking through mosquito swarms to our agreed upon tent site. I had actually just told my mom over the phone that the mosquitos weren’t that bad in Washington. Well, mom, I take that back.
It’s like we’ve returned to the Sierras! 25 miles of hiking today was pretty meh, followed by 5 unbelievable miles that came out of nowhere. Goat Rocks is breathtaking; rolling hills, valleys cut by snowmelt streams, paintbrush and lupine everywhere you turn, craggy rocks and outcroppings above, views of Mt. adams, Mt St. Helen, and Ranier. This is the stuff backpacking dreams are made of!
We left Trout Lake late in the day, after a huckleberry pancake and huckleberry roll in the morning. Nine of us piled into the bed of a truck ( a short bed!) and rode the 25 minutes up to the trailhead. We flew through 15 beautiful miles of train just under Mt. adams, with views of Ranier and St. Hellens in the distance. The wildflowers were absurdly gorgeous, and the meadows glowed in the evening sun. The feared river crossing was a simple log-walk. Today was a trail highlight for sure.
24 miles in to Trout Lake—pretty rapid hiking, with early morning watermelon trail magic. So happy to get off our feet!
This is one of my favorite days! We had a beautiful descent into Cascade Lockes, down an alternate route (technically not the PCT) which cut a few miles off and took us past Tunnel falls, this amazing huge waterfall you get to walk behind. We then finished our 24 miles into town, immediately getting soft serve, beers and burgers. The camping area in town was tent city, and we aren’t even in the hiker “bubble” from the wildfire. Unfortunately we heard over dinner that our friend Chewy got hurt on trail, and we had to wait anxiously for any news with the knowledge that search and rescue had gone at least 6 miles up trail for her with a stretcher. We take great care to be safe on trail, but this definitely brought into focus how dangerous hiking can be. We decided to push big miles for the next few days before Trail days (when we will return to cascade Lockes!) we are so excited for Washington!
We woke late to make it to the Timberline Lodge breakfast buffet. The breakfast was 100% worth the hype! They had fresh baked pastries, eggs, sausage, pancakes, smoothies, mimosas, bottomless coffee… 11/10. So many folks we hadn’t seen in a while showed up to the lodge and I felt this instant relief that the wildfires hadn’t put us completely outside our bubble of trail friends. It was amazing to be back with Mimosa, Breaking Bad and Tango, and to see Gopher, Road Soda, and a bunch of other familiar faces nearby. We hiked a friendly 21 miles today. Highlights were an alternate route that brought us to Ramona Falls, and trail magic 18 miles in. Great day overall!
We strolled an easy 7 miles into a parking lot, passing mile 2000, and getting a ride to Eugene from Colin! Got our chores done (mostly) and prepared our final two resupply boxes that will support our hike to the end of our hike! Man did we need this time off. But we can finally see the end of our hike coming up which is wild. Just 500 miles left!
We hiked an early 5 miles to Crater Lake Lodge for breakfast (worth it!) then hiked 6 miles along the crater rim trail. It was a bit smoky but we still got amazing views. Our concerns at this point about where the wildfires were were pretty constant. The lightening storms were expected to continue for days, including today. But we still decided to risk hiking the remaining miles to the actual closure (around 16 more). We made it 8 of those miles before 2 pm, then the clouds started to roll in. With 8 miles to go, we hike-sprinted the rest of the trail through dead trees as dry lightening and thunder cracked overhead. Luckily the trail was flat. By 4:30 pm, we were exhausted, scared, and happy to be alive as we arrived at the road where we planned to hitch with Breaking Bad, Mimosa and Ranger. Little did we know that trail magic and angels were going to be there waiting for us with beers and hot dogs! The rest of our crew rolled in and we all hung around eating, drinking and being merry at the closure of the next section. Half of us decided to go in to Chemult (a tiny podunk lil town just outside of the next section we wanted to start at) and half decided to go into Bend (much further, likely forcing a bigger skip past hikeable trail). We then got a hitch from one of the angels there who took us straight to Chemult for us to figure out what our next step is and see where wildfires are popping up.
What a whirlwind. We woke to swarms of mosquitos buzzing outside our tent doors just waiting to perform a non consensual blood drive. We packed up and scurried through the mosquitos in rain gear and head nets, since our deet ran out. We started our 19 mile water carry day into “town” in the mosquito swarms. The mozzies eventually died down about 6 miles in as we entered a dry burn zone. At this point we started passing friends and discussing recent fires we heard about, both ahead and behind. The one ahead had grown since yesterday, and was still 0% contained. Overnight a lightening storm 100 miles south of us forced hundreds of hikers into emergency evacuations at 2 am. That’s our nightmare. We got to Mazama (aka Crater Lake campground below the rim) and started researching our options and the fire ahead. It was still 2.5 miles away from the trail, and headed closed any section yet. Weather reports showed lightening storms for the next three days in this area and north of us. The conditions are terrible, but nothing was diffinitively stopping our forward motion. We decided to make backup plans for evacuation routes should things go south, and to continue onward by foot. At Mazama we also got new shoes, significantly helping out our morale.
Waking next to the stream, we slept in until 5:30 this morning and steadily made our way up soft grades of forest. Oregon so far has had great tree cover, and we were exposed very little today. The heat was worse than yesterday, sadly, and the water sources further apart. By 5 pm when we made it to a “lake” 22 miles in, we were both so ready for a swim that the murky pond we got, with brown gunk that rose up in the water when you stepped, was worth the dunk. We finally got views at the end of the day, our first views in Oregon ❤️ it sure is gorgeous! But we also finally got news about our first fire that could impact our hike. There is a 36 acre burn area just two miles from the PCT that so far has not closed trail but has the potential to force us to hitch around a very long stretch if the fire spreads. The fire as of now is about 80 miles ahead of us, before our next resupply. We are very hopeful this fire will be contained, but it’s putting the reality of wildfire impacts at the front of our brains.
We woke at 4 am to alarms all around us urging us to get up and join the others in an insufferably early start to the day. We were the first out of camp, and by 9 am had walked 10 miles, finishing up 21 miles by 1:30 pm at a hut with a large well/water pump. We napped/ate/read for 2.5 hours amongst the other 20 or so hikers crowding all the shady spots around the hut. We waited until 4 pm to hit the road again for the final 10 mile push, and because Vee got a nap in, we made it in to camp first. Five minutes into arriving at the river, a trail angel approached me and said they had pizza, beer, sodas and fruit for hikers! We’ve never had such perfectly spontaneous and important trail magic! There is nothing better than pushing like crazy in unbearable heat for 32 miles to be completely surprised by two drop in trail angels in a sprinter van. I will never forget this beautiful day.
Today’s sweatfest ended in pitchers and chicken tenders at the Hyatt Resort, a spontaneous end point. We got a wonderful ride from a trail angel who plans to hike the PCT next year with Tango, Honey Buns, and Tiny Dancer to the trailhead. These miles were HOT. We are no sure what the top temperature was, but we are pretty sure it was in the low hundreds, paired with unbearable humidity. It was like swimming. We are stoked to be back with trail family and getting some miles and breaks with friends. We think Oregon will be much of the same as today, hiking with friends, extreme heat, only with more mosquitos!
Today we said goodbye to California in the best way possible: 30 rolling miles that were good to us, beers at a cabin just before the border, an all-day breeze, views, and good health. We almost crossed the border but decided the cabin .8 before the border was too nice to pass up! Luckily we brought glass bottled beer to celebrate our 1690 miles so far. Usually we bring cans, but the ambers were in bottles. We heard that others who brought beer cans had to impromptu chug beers in the wee hours of the morning due to the heat or the elevation popping the cans. Now sitting here and reflecting on California, it’s easy to say good bye because it’s not going anywhere, but also easy to reminisce on the good times this state and this wilderness has provided. This state allowed us to meet so many amazing people, gave us incredible experiences, challenged our expectations and physical abilities, and provided for us in so many small ways from lucky trail magic to serendipitous meetups with friends, to crazy hiteches. I will miss CA but welcome everything that Oregon has in store for us!
Today was all about the wildflowers. You could not walk a single mile this day without constant beauties surrounding you, paired with stunning views! Like being back in the sierras or in the alps (I imagine). We had some serious elevation gain and loss today (5000 up and down) so we didn’t make it as far as we had hoped, but we forgive ourselves for that at this point. We ended the day at a tight squeeze campsite with a lovely gentleman called “Steely Dan”, named after the metal plate in his knee. Steely Dan has run tons of ultra marathons in his hay day, and in his 70s is now section hiking the PCT despite his knee surgery. Was a legend!
Explore the full hike map
You need to be logged in to do this.
