I thought a lot about finishing the hike during the last few days before Canada. I expected to miss the fresh air, the tranquility and the exercise. I expected to miss the regular interactions with other hikers and the unwavering company of my closest trail friends. Add to this the fact that being out on the trail teaches a certain amount of adaptability. Whether it’s trail closures, hunger, tiredness, injury or just whims, a hiker will learn to go with…
Only 11 miles to the border this morning. I spent a good amount of time during those miles imagining various injury scenarios. I’ve heard of someone falling and breaking their ankle 6 miles from the border. Perhaps I could still hike with injured arms or a broken face? Or maybe crawl along with injured feet? Other hikers will help, surely? Thankfully none of my scenarios played out, and my contingency plans were not required. We passed Foxtrot heading southbound early…
Almost immediately out of the campsite the trail narrowed back to a ribbon along the steep side of the mountain. We met a deer eager to avoid the rocks and gradient and using the trail to find breakfast. He was entirely unfazed by hikers, continuing to munch on the trees as we approached. It took a few yards of following him down the trail before he took the high road and started picking his way up the slope. Early on…
It was cold this morning! Good job we had stayed at the trailhead where there was an outhouse to provide some shelter. Good job too that we were only part way up the hill and had a good climb first thing. As the trail emerged from the woods, frost and ice became visible on the plants and the grit. Nevertheless the sun was shining and the colours of the trees were vibrant. In this section there are the usual evergreen…
We got a relatively early start when Bethany shuttled us to High Bridge along with Gypsy. The trail was well-trodden through the forest first thing, and made its way gradually uphill all the way to Rainy Pass almost 20 miles away. It was a good way for Chug to get back into hiking after a week – a fairly gentle trail with little in the way of mud and rocks. The weather was perfect for hiking too, warm in the…
Today was a zero day for me – I’d arrived at High Bridge more than a day earlier than I’d expected and Chug wasn’t arriving on the ferry from Chelan until around lunchtime today. I made the most of the great food at the ranch, and hung around in the upstairs common room doing a jigsaw puzzle and reading some of the books they had there. When Chug arrived, we planned to take a trip to the bakery. The ranch…
I awoke to rain and delayed getting out of the tent as long as possible. I knew I had only 9.4 miles to get to the High Bridge ranger station where I could take a bus into Stehekin and wasn’t in any particular rush to get hiking in the rain. However it wasn’t letting up and I packed up and got on the road in record time. I didn’t stop other than to check the distance a couple of times,…
I was sitting with my coffee looking out at the sunrise over the distant mountains when I heard NightShip shouting at the top of his lungs the words “I’m shouting at the top of my lungs”. Question being, why on earth?? It’s 7:30am and you’re destroying the serenity of the wilderness already. Gah. Rebo’s group is bugging me. The trail was fairly easy this morning, tracking 8 miles downhill to the Suiattle River. The old PCT heads over the river…
Woah, some big climbs today. Over 8,500ft of climbing, plus the descents in between of over 6,000ft. I’m so tired! Unfortunately I ran into a hiker going by the name of Rebo who immediately irked me. He was hollering every half mile or so to let his group know he was nearby. Unfortunately we were climbing up a big hill and if his friends had already passed the peak they would have no chance of hearing him. He didn’t seem…
Today was beautiful but hard and long. But I saw a marmot so everything was ok! I couldn’t manage to get a picture of it before it hid under a rock, so I snapped a couple of a curious pika instead. I left camp fairly late, as there was no real rush and it was cold out. Hiking in the morning is pretty chilly, and the contours of the trail wreak havoc with homeostasis. Heading downhill through the forest I…