PCT Washington Day 24: Porcupine Creek to Meadows Campground

 I didn't sleep very well. The ground was a little bit slanted and I kept sliding down. It was so exciting spending the night with my dad there on the trail that I didn't care that much. He was up early, so it wasn't tough for me to get up early either. We hung out in the morning a little bit and talked about the plan. He took some of my overnight gear down with him because we were going to camp the following night together at Hart's Pass. That meant that I was nearly day hiking this section. I still carried a bit more than a usual day hiker, but it was nothing compared to what I had been carrying at other portions of the trip. We both got packed up and were on the trail by 6. The rest of the world seemed pretty quiet until I heard the sound of 3 gunshots. 

They were so loud down in the valley below that I became a little bit nervous. I hoped my dad was okay. It was probably hunters, but who knew from up above. I spent the morning climbing uphill. The goal was to get to Cutthroat Pass. This was a rather easy undertaking with my light load. The views were incredible. There were high mountain peaks all around me with deep forested valleys below. I ran into a few other people in this area as it seemed like most of the really pretty spots were always filled with more human beings. Everyone was very friendly and happy to be there. 

After reaching Cutthroat Pass, the trail went downhill. It was really cold. The wind was sort of blowing and I was in the shade. It was definitely time for the poofy jacket to keep me warm. Once again, I was surprised at how little sweat I was putting into hiking this trail. Morning were often cool and sometimes, like this morning, downright chilly. When I would pop out into the sunlight, I would warm up rather quickly, but this trail seemed to be a series of high mountain ridges and passes. It was downhill to Granite Pass, then back uphill to Methow Pass. After Methow Pass, everything seemed to change quite rapidly. Instead of the big views of high mountains, I was descending into a valley. The valley still had the dead looking trees and this place really looked like a tinder box. 

It was now beginning to warm up and I was feeling great. The trail was just slowly descending downhill and I had a light pack. I was really moving well and was easily putting up over 3 miles an hour in this section. There were still lots of people out and about. I was enjoying talking to them. I talked to an older couple who had hiked 95% of the PCT. This was one of their last sections to complete. They were worried that they were not going to finish it because they still had the really difficult section between Rainy Pass and Stevens Pass through Glacier Peak to accomplish. I encouraged them to do it because it was difficult, but nothing that much more difficult than this section. That is easy to say when the trail is in great shape and I am just cruising. 

I continued going downhill quickly in the cool morning air. The sun was out, though, and it was warming rapidly. By the time I hit the footbridge across Brush Creek, it was turning into a warm day. To make it even worse, the tree cover was becoming less and less. Here I was at noon and I was at the low point of the day at 4500 feet. I would have to climb up over 7000 feet in the next few hours. I lathered up on the sunscreen and made sure I had a full water supply to charge up the hill. The going was difficult, but I was in such great shape after 24 days on the trail, that I seemed to handle the hills with ease. Here the sweat started to fall, though, and I got a good workout going up the hill, even passing a few people as I went. I made it up to Glacier Pass which was this strange flat area that did not offer me a respite from the uphill climbing. It actually had no glaciers either and was really just a dividing point for the Brush Creek and Slate Creek drainages. I continued uphill toward Grasshopper Pass. Here, the switchbacks became frequent. In fact, from down below, I could see a person hiking over 1000 feet above me. So it was switchback after switchback to climb up to Grasshopper Pass.

On one of these switchbacks, I ran into a trail runner who was on like mile 70 of a 100 mile run. I enjoyed chatting with him for the few seconds and was pretty impressed that someone would venture this far out there on a trail run. After leaving him, I continued uphill until finally making it to the top of Grasshopper Pass. This was my last big climb of the day. Once I was on top, the greenery seemed to melt away and the terrain changed to something I had not experienced on the PCT in Washington thus far. It was very dry and barren. It still had these big views of big peaks, but the terrain seemed almost eastern in its feel. I enjoyed the big views and listened to my mp3 player trying to find a local radio station to listen to. 

Now came the job of finding my dad. I wondered if he would be out hiking on the trail to meet up with me. Hart's Pass is the furthest north you can go on the PCT and still have a road. The road was not great, but good enough to get a two wheel drive vehicle to the campground. It was really nice of him to meet me up here and really helped make a lot of my trip possible. I knew there were two possible camping locations he could be at. One was Hart's Pass itself, but there was another campground even closer. He was planning to find a campsite there at the Meadows Campground. I was hoping he would find a site, because there sure seemed to be a lot of people around. This place felt pretty far out there, but then again, there were big views of big mountains all around.

The trail in this section seemed to hug the slopes of the mountains around. I went around Tatie Peak and really enjoyed the section of trail. It seemed rather easy and I was just flying when I started to see the Meadows Campground. I looked for my dad's truck, but could not see it. When I got closer, though, he had put a note on a tree telling me which campsite he was in. I grabbed the note and cut off down the road. I found him at the campsite where I proceeded to find a nice spot to sleep, ate a lot of food, and lost a couple games of cribbage. We hung out for the evening, but the exciting part was that I was beginning the final stretch tomorrow. While I had enjoyed my experience on the trail, there is nothing more rewarding than completing a goal and I was oh so close. 

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.