PCT Washington Day 23: Bridge Creek Camp to Porcupine Creek

 I was up at the crack of dawn just to make sure that I wouldn't have to worry about my lost permit. This was just easier to get on the trail while most everyone else was still sleeping. The morning was quiet. The trail was quiet as I followed Bridge Creek. I was once again enjoying the nice conditions. This trail was clear of all debris. It was even brushed out perfectly so I didn't have to even worry about touching the vegetation. It was easy going except that it was all uphill. Yesterday, I spent the whole day going downhill. Today, I got to spend the whole day climbing uphill. I was starting at about 2200 feet and would end the day at about 5300 feet. So the climb was not crazy. 3100 feet over 15 miles isn't bad at all. 

The trail here was so much different than most of my hiking on the PCT. It felt more like Eastern Washington than Western Washington. The trail was dry and almost dusty in places. The terrain was more open with big trees still, but not nearly as much underbrush. I was moving pretty fast because I was down to the last days of food that I had to carry. I was meeting my dad at Rainy Pass and he was coming to camp with me for the night 5 miles up the trail at Porcupine Creek. I was pretty excited for that. I had been in constant communication with him due to my inReach device. He had left his house at 6 AM and we would meet up eventually at the pass. For now, though, I was trudging along uphill. The weather was getting warmer quickly and those wet shoes were no longer a problem. Still, the sore/numb foot was an issue. I really did not have a choice but to keep on keeping on with that one though. It stopped bothering me after a little bit anyway and since I had switched back to my original insoles, it wasn't getting any worse. My Achilles were a little bit more so now that I did not have the inserts, but they still loosened up after a few miles in the morning. Nothing as bad as what I experienced in Oregon. 

I had crossed the water two times. Once near the North Fork where the bridge was in great shape and another at Maple Creek where I had to hike uphill in an odd way to get to the bridge. Either way, it was an easy trail and soon I was starting to see the weekend warriors moving in. I always felt a little awkward when there were people fresh from the city and here I have been out for many days. They smelled so clean and fresh. Who knows what I smelled like? My beard, too, was probably so awkward looking, but whatever. I didn't feel that self conscious until I got around busier areas. This was definitely becoming a busier area. I passed Six Mile, South Fork, Hideaway, and Fireweed camps. 

From there I was able to leave North Cascades National Park and soon I was right next to the road. This part of the trail was actually pretty quiet because most people parked at the Bridge Creek Trailhead. Once I was beyond that, it was quiet for the mile and a half until I got to Rainy Pass. Here was the mass of humanity. Not since Cayuse Pass were there so many cars in one place. The only one I really cared about was seeing my dad and his car. I saw him across the road as soon as I came out of the trail at about 1:30 pm. It was great to see him. We talked about the hike and his drive as we went to his car. I spent an hour or so, repacking as he was my resupply point. I even got to throw down a bunch more food while I waited as he had some snacks for me.

Eventually, I got myself ready. This was actually going to be pretty easy. I only needed to take enough food for tonight and the next day as he was planning to meet me further on up the trail at Hart's Pass the following night. I brought only enough stuff for this one night of backpacking. We still had a bit of a hike as it was 5 miles to where we were hoping to camp. It was mostly uphill as the trail switchbacked through the dying forest. We wondered about the trees together with drought and beetle kill being the dominant thoughts. Dad was great company and it was nice to have someone to talk to. We finally arrived to where we were going to camp and there was a friendly gentleman there that offered to let us stay at his site because he said the rest of them were full. I was skeptical of this, though, because I hadn't had trouble finding a site previously. I wandered around a little bit and found lots of sites back in the woods. We picked one. Unfortunately, I picked a spot that was on a slope which would make my sleep a little bit poor. We camped at about 4:30. We ate dinner. Played some cribbage. Eventually, though, the bugs became so annoying that we had to go hide in our tents. We still were able to chat for a bit, but we read our books and enjoyed the outdoors and each other's company.

PCT Washington Day 22: Suiattle Pass to Bridge Creek

I thought that when I went to sleep, I would awake in the morning to a bright sun shiny day. Unfortunately, that idea was sort of turned on its head when I heard it start to rain at 3 AM. I dreaded the getting up part that would happen in two hours. I was half awake and half asleep with the rain keeping me company, but when it was time to get up at 5 AM, the rain abruptly stopped. Still, it was very cold and the mosquitoes that were around the night before were now few and far between. I put on my soggy shoes and then it was time to start moving. This was definitely a day that I would be hiking with my poofy jacket. I didn't make it very far before some "whole thing" thru hikers flew by me. They seemed intent on making as many miles as they could as fast as they could.

I was happy that they flew by me because I needed a pit stop. After that brief break, I was just flying. The great part about getting to Suiattle Pass was that I could spend most of the day just cruising downhill. If it was a little bit warmer and a little bit drier, this would be the perfect day. It was funny, though, because in Oregon I spent so many days dealing with the heat. In Washington, I was definitely using my cold weather gear more often. I had a little bit of rain off and on too just to remind me that I couldn't expect to get dry too soon. I also got to manage more blowdowns. They were still quite frequent and it made for a difficult hike even with the trail being downhill. The scenery was pretty awesome, though, as I was in this huge mountain valley.

Each step further downhill, made the mountains seem to rise to impressive heights all around me. I had been hiking for a couple of hours when the forest seemed to change. There were still blowdowns, but now the needles seemed dead. There were big trees standing straight and proud, but the ends of their needles seemed to be brown. There were also little trees with the same issue. Having been around beetle kill in Rocky Mountain National Park, I figured this was something similar. When I asked other hikers if they knew, I got everything from disease, to drought, to insects, so I am not entirely sure. What I did know is that I was happy that the day was nice and cool because these trees looked like a tinder box ready to explode. The trail continued downhill and I had hiked about 7 miles when I came to the South Agnes Creek ford. This turned out to be the hardest ford on the entire trip. I could have easily crossed the creek getting my feet wet in the process. Considering that they were just beginning to dry out, I did not want to do that. Instead, I found a log and began to walk across it. It was rather narrow and about the middle of the creek, I realized that this long was pretty far off and I was risking serious injury by making this crossing. 

If I fell here, that would have been a bad decision. Considering the numbness in my right foot, I should have thought a little bit more. Still, I made the crossing without issue and I lived to continue on down the hill. It wasn't much after this that the trail suddenly became better. There were instantly no trees down. It was brushed on the sides. It felt as if I was flying because I wasn't having to climb up and over something. I can't say for sure whether I enjoyed this more or less, because having some difficulties to encounter does make it feel a bit more adventurous, but what I do know is that I could kind of take my mind off the trail for a little bit and just hike. I was listening to Audible, and that made the time go by faster. 

It wasn't that I necessarily loved the book I was listening to, but I felt like I had the ability to focus on it a lot more without obstacles coming my way. The forest was awesome. There were big trees around including a few cedar trees that just had a massive base. This was a very pleasant forest and became even more so the further I went downhill. After starting at 6000 feet in the morning, I was going to end up below 2000 feet at Stehekin in the evening. For all of the twists and turns I had taken getting around Glacier Peak, this was just a straight shot following the South Fork of Agnes Creek for many, many miles. The people I talked to on the trail seemed much more pleasant and excited than they had seemed days earlier. I was beginning to meet more people just starting their journey as Stehekin seemed to be a destination that many backpackers were using as a starting out point. They were excited for their journey and I was getting a lot of congratulations for almost being done with mine. At this point, I was finally feeling as if there was nothing that was going to stop me and I was just going to have to gut out anything that could stop me for another week or so. My foot pain was ever present, but I knew I would recover from that eventually. 

Instead, I just got to enjoy the lovely river as I hiked along. Occasionally, I would stop to take it in. If it was a warmer day, I am sure that taking a dip in the cool waters would have been inviting. It was definitely beginning to warm up, but not nearly enough that a swim in a glacial creek seemed like the right idea. I continued downhill and the gorge just seemed to get deeper and deeper. I figured out the allure of Stehekin. Here you had this low mountain valley surrounded by these tall peaks that rose thousands of feet from the valley below. It was very similar to hiking in the Grand Canyon where you just keep getting deeper and deeper and the cliffs seem to stay the same height. 

Soon, I was crossing into Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and the paranoia started to take over a little bit. I had received a long distance permit from the PCTA when I started my trip. After my first stop, though, I had apparently tossed it out. The only place on the whole trip that I was going to need that, was inside North Cascades National Park. The time I was going to be in North Cascades National Park was very small as for the most part I would be in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, but the place I wanted to camp, Bridge Creek, the permit was necessary. I decided to just risk it. I didn't really feel like I was breaking the rules because I had intended to follow the rules, but I was going to have to be a little bit more stealth. 

The trail was even better as I got closer and at about 4 PM, I was crossing the river into North Cascades National Park along a beautiful bridge. Just getting here, I had already hiked 19 miles this day. My feet were sore. More so, my right foot, but even my left was a little sore from having hiked with soggy feet most of the day. My shoes were getting better, though, as the sun and the drier, lower elevation was helping to wick the moisture away. After crossing, the bridge, I used the bathroom in the campground, then after a little bit of wandering around, I was able to locate the trail. To Bridge Creek I shall go. It was only another 5 miles of hiking to get to Bridge Creek, but it was uphill after a day of smooth sailing. 

The trail was in worse shape and seemed almost dried out. There were horse droppings everywhere as this seemed to be a popular spot for horseback riding. It felt almost urban and for many people, this was a necessary stop along the PCT. For me, though, I just wanted to be back in the wilds. The trail took me by Howard Lake that seemed to be filled with lily pads. This looked like a very pleasant spot and was probably a popular day hike for people coming up from Stehekin. The PCT followed the Old Wagon Trail which you could see the wideness of the trail at places was meant for something larger than a hiker. It felt like Bridge Creek was farther away than it should be when I finally rolled into camp at 6:45 PM. I took the first campsite that I saw with a picnic table that I later learned were reserved for the more prestigious guests, not PCT hikers. I didn't find that out until the morning, so I just went through my normal routine of setting up the tent, getting my comforts ready for bed, making and eating my dinner, filtering water, and finally laying down my weary head for the evening. I was tired and I wasn't even bothered by the smell of the bathroom that occasionally wafted into my camping area. Instead, I got to sleep early as usual with the nights starting to come a little bit sooner each night.  

PCT Washington Day 21: South Fork Milk Creek to Suiattle Pass

There is something altogether uneasy about being asleep in a tent and hearing the sound of raindrops hit the tent. Even if the rainfly is working sufficiently and the gear and the people are staying dry, there is still the feeling that it is only a matter of time before the morning will come and the weather will be upon you. That in all your efforts to keep yourself clean and dry, you shall be thwarted and the day will be spent with soggy feet and damp clothing. 

That was today whether I liked it or not. Getting out of the tent at 5:00 in the morning, I could see the European couple near me finishing their packing. I would see them not far down the trail. The weather was not particularly horrible, it was just wet enough to make everything just a little bit miserable. The rain was coming down, though lightly, it was enough to make things rough. The worst part about it, though, was that I was going right by the junction for Grassy Point Trail. The terrain was such that each step that I took made my shoes just about as saturated as they could possibly be. There is nothing you dread more in rainy conditions than a meadow because there is no tree cover to protect you or the ground either. Though beautiful on a sunny day, meadows make conditions much more challenging. On the bright side of things, though, since I had camped at high elevation, this gave me an easy morning. I would be spending the next nine miles dropping elevation down to the Suiattle River and then I would spend most of my day walking next to it. This meant that my grassy meadow would begin to turn into thick bushes again. These thick bushes were just as rich with salmon berries as the bushes yesterday and I made sure to get my fill of fresh morning fruit. Then it would go downhill some more until I was in thick forest. 

This would be great if it wasn't for the blowdowns. This is the northwestern portion of Washington, so these blowdowns were not small trees. Sometimes it would take a lot of energy to get up, over, or around these trees and then hidden behind the first was just another and another to climb over. With a big pack on and a sore foot, this was a task that I was starting to get frustrated with. I would estimate that I had gone through hundreds of blowdowns when at 10:30 AM, the suddenly stopped. It was like a miracle, but really it was just the upper limit of where the trail crew had reached. I spent the next several hours walking by the Suiattle River feeling like I was making incredible time. 

As I continued to lose elevation, the forest definitely changed quite dramatically. I would go from 6000 feet in the morning to below 3000 feet when I crossed the Suiattle River at noon. Though the weather was still wet, it was definitely a bit warmer and the morning had been relatively easy compared to my big day the previous day. I was hoping that the rain would stop, but I was ungraciously rewarded each time I thought this could be it with a stronger shower that would refreshen the dampness through my body. Crossing the Suiattle River was a big deal though, because this meant that the trail was going to lead me away from Glacier Peak and toward the Stehekin area which I was excited to see tomorrow. 

For now though, a beautiful bridge took me across the large glacier charged river and now I would be walking uphill again. At first, this was not much as the trail was sort of up and down and mainly by the river. I was surprised today how very quiet the trail was. I was barely seeing a soul out here. I knew the rain would detract from people coming in from other places, but even PCT hikers may have been hiding out on this day. When I talked to some people about this day later on, many of them did spend the day in their tent. I couldn't imagine doing that just to stay dry. I was still enjoying this day, but it was definitely one that I was happy to put some miles behind me as I continued up the river.

After about 14 miles hiking on the day, I came to Miners Creek where there was a very detailed and fantastically created bridge. This sort of marked the end of my flat hiking and was the unofficial end of the clear trail. After this the blowdowns were back to make the end of my hiking day a workout. Instead of following the Suiattle River, I was now following the uphill path of Miner's Creek. This would take through many switchbacks and even a burned out area from a recent fire, probably only last year. The forest just felt so dark and cold. It was a little lonely and ominous at this point too and with more blowdowns to go over, resulted in what felt like an almost melancholy type mood for the day. Still I continued on uphill.

The goal for the day was to make it to Suiattle Pass. It felt like I was going to make it there, but how was it going to be once I made it there? Would I just spend a night in the wet and cold. As I walked through the clouds, I began to notice a shift in the weather. Climbing uphill, the temperature was dropping, but I was also starting to come out of the wet, damp, fog of a cloudy day and the sun was beginning to peak its head through the clouds. I hoped for some excellent scenery as if it was going to be a rainy day, at least I wasn't missing out on the mountains that are around me since I was in the forest anyway. I came to the second junction of Miner's Creek where I saw a very nice campsite. It was still early in the day and I just could not get myself to give it up here. There would be sufficient water, but it just felt like I needed to get to Suiattle Pass to feel like I was making it out of the valley surrounding the Suiattle River. After leaving Miner's Creek, the trail became much steeper with switchbacks frequently. After passing another opportunity to camp with the junction of the Miner's Ridge Trail, the views really opened up and I even experienced something that I had not seen all day. Sunshine! From someone who had been outside for many days in a row now, this was the most that I appreciated it on the whole trail. 

It still was not warm, but at least it was not wet. I continued to climb on and on until finally reaching Suiattle Pass. Here, I looked for a campsite and there was one right at the pass, but there was no water. So I continued further. I had already hiked around 21 miles and 22 seemed to be my daily average. There was one marked on the map and sure enough when I got there, there was even a sign saying camp this way. I followed it and there was a nice big open site for me and me alone. I quickly settled in, set the tent up, and got my wet clothes hanging up on the clothes line. I was pretty doubtful that anything was going to completely dry in this weather, because although it was sunny, it was still cold and rather humid. 

I was fortunate to have water at my campsite, but I was also unfortunate to have mosquitoes. All day long I had battled the rain, which at time dumped torrents upon my head. Now that I was in camp, the mosquitoes did not allow me a great amount of time to enjoy the sunny conditions and after doing my camp chores, I was soon hiding away in my tent. There was not anyone to talk to on this day anyway except I could have had a conversation with the unhappy hiker who had to look for another site after wandering into mine looking for a place for himself for the night. When I heard him, I was unaware if it was an animal, so I got out to see a human with a backpack scampering away. I was happy to have my nice dry tent, but I knew that tomorrow would be spent with more wet feet as the sun quickly sank below the level of my campsite, so it was not out long enough for me to enjoy it or for it to get any of my gear dry. Oh well, I will continue on regardless.