PCT Day 28

Start: 51.6

Stop: 69.4

Today’s miles: 17.8

Total PCT miles: 257.2

I think I went through every single emotion today. Ok, maybe not every single one, but quite a few.. quite a few..

I slept fantastic, and refused to get up before 7. I finally did and packed everything but my tent. Y’all. The SUN WAS SHINING! The skies were blue and I ate my breakfast watching one side of my tent dry out like magic, while the other side still had condensation dripping down it. When I finally did pack it, it made no difference that the sun dried half, because it was all wet again now.

I said bye to Margot and we agreed if we came upon anything sketchy we’d wait for the other one before continuing on. Most of the morning I was happy as could be, sing songing to myself, loving the massive views from every angle, and seeing the little gap in those huge mountains where we slept last night as I got farther and farther away from it.

I started hitting little patches of snow once I got to some switchbacks, but they were manageable and some I went around completely. I didn’t even break a sweat! As I was coming around this one “circus” (I think this is the term Margot used for it), I got to some snow crossing the trail and it was decently steep.. I got nervous so I put on my microspikes, and then just went for it.

I got 5 or 6 steps across when I slid. First I slid on snow. Then I continued to slide into the loose rock scree that makes up this mountainside. The only reason I stopped was because I dug my heels into the rocks and dirt-and laid back into my pack. I was so scared that my leg would snap or I’d pick up more speed and slam into one of the huge boulders below.

When I did stop, my pack was up around my neck. One pole was still in the snow above me where I fell. The other one was maybe 15-20 feet below me, along with a water bottle that sailed out during the descent. Oh. My. God. I was petrified to move. As I was waiting for my breathing to slow down and my heartbeat to stop pounding in my ears, I watched the small rocks continue to slide and bounce down.. past my pole, and my water bottle..

Even though my whole body was still shaking, like my limbs were being controlled by someone else entirely, I unhooked my pack. I slowly pulled it to the side of me, and as I did, it and I both slid down a little more. I dug my heels in deeper. I was going to just sit there until Margot appeared. And then, for some reason I decided that might make her panic or something and maybe cause her to make a wrong choice attempting to help me and then get herself hurt, too.

Before I moved, I took my Garmin Inreach (my SOS if I got hurt and needed an evacuation) off my pack and zipped it into my pants pocket with my phone, which now has a cracked screen cover). Then, I slowly and very shakily moved to a crouched position, rocks still sliding with each move, and decided to try to quickly climb my way back up to the trail. Once I did, I felt relief and terror simultaneously. I had to get my pole. Which meant I had to step in the snow steps up to it, without falling again. I did, and then I slowly inched backwards in those same steps, praying the entire time that I stayed on my feet.

Then, I had to butt slide back to my pack, but try to do it slowly enough that the ground underneath me didn’t break away like an avalanche and take my pack with it. As I got to my pack, the rocks continued to slide and pushed my other pole farther and farther down. That was ok, I was wanting get down to the big boulders below, maybe 50-100ft down from the trail? I’m horrible with guesstimations like that..

I slid and crept down this very steep very loose and so scary mountainside to the more stable looking rocks. When I touched them I held my breath hoping they wouldn’t move, too. I was able to get my other pole and my water bottle, and I stood in front of the largest boulder while waiting for Margot.

When she got there, she didn’t realize at first why I was down there.. like maybe I was choosing to go around the snow.. then I told her and she saw my slide marks. We talked a few minutes, she got her microspikes on, and decided to slowly slide her way to where I was, too, but from more of an angle than my directly down route went thanks to the fall. While making this plan, we start to hear and somewhat feel a crashing rumble.. we panic, eyes darting, looking for the source of the noise-just knowing something was coming down on us and there was no way to get away from it. Pure terror on both of our faces that was palpable. Thankfully, it had to have been on the other side of the peak we were at, because a rock avalanche never came crashing down on us.

She carefully made her way down towards me.. scared surely but still laughing and smiling and making my nerves calm. My shaking hadn’t left, but it wasn’t as intense. About half way to me, she goes “you know what? We’re brave.” And you know what? She’s damn right. If I could have avoided all of this I would have in a heartbeat, but now faced with this scary situation I was happy she was here with me, and happy that she was being so positive and reminding me that we can do hard things.

Once she got to me, we took a breather, and then we slowly worked farther down and around these massive boulders the size of trucks, watching as some steps caused a cascade of rocks to go sliding down past them to a beyond I was scared to think of. When we started coming up the other side, parts of it felt like vertical climbing. The microspikes would grasp on to these tiny green plants between the loose rocks and we were able to eventually climb our way back up to the trail.
Relieved as hell we just stood there a while. Took off our spikes and cleaned out our pebble filled shoes.. she started walking first and I was grateful, because I was still shaking. I eventually got back into my grove once the adrenaline quit pumping through me like the only drug keeping me alive.

Not 20-30 minutes afterwards, we started walking into day hikers. There were coming in off different trails to get to “Cutthroat Pass” but just not the part of what we just did. They were all quick moving and had little backpacks.. I was a little in shock at how quickly everything changed. It took me a few minutes to get a grip but then I was fine the rest of the day.

It was basically all downhill elevation was from there. And we were now in North Cascades National Park, so the entire way down from Cutthroat Pass to the Rainy Pass parking lot there wasn’t a single blowdown to climb over. There were, however, many streams and creek crossings. I attempted to keep my feet dry, until one failure-then I just walked through them all without trying to keep them dry. What difference would it make now?

There was a girl with a dog and a man doing a trail run, and so many other day hikers. Once I got to the parking lot, I dropped my stuff and used the bathroom there. It was getting close to 3pm, and this is the road to hitch to Mazama.. or I’d have another 8+ miles to get to the next campground. Before I made a decision, I decided I’d dry out my tent, socks, and shoes and sit to eat some snacks.

Margo wasn’t long after me and we were discussing just hiking the 8 miles to camp, since there wasn’t any lodging available in Stehekin anyway-whatever we did would be camping, and why move camp twice when you can keep it up for 2 days and have a legitimate zero day?
While we were talking, none other than Marquis appeared! It WAS him making the arrows and digging his trekking poles through the snow that day I was in a panic! He said he stopped at the campground just on the other side of the pass, the one I swear I walked through and yelled through and saw no one. He saw me coming up the switchbacks and waved to me, but I never saw him! We all got good laughs over where we each were during all of that snowy mess! No one has seen A-Train and Drake since then though. I wonder if they went back to Mazama when they got to Hart’s Pass?

Once we got up and ready to go again, Margot and I left Marquis at the road, hitching to Mazama, while we hiked on to get to six mile camp in the National park. We weren’t hiking but maybe a mile into our 8 miles, and it started to rain. Like the skies opened up out of no where! Rain jackets and pack covers and umbrellas. Oh my.

I was cruising right along when I realized I turned the wrong way and had to walk a good 15-20 minutes back to a trail junction to go the right way. The trail was flooded and overgrown. I was trying to not let myself get frustrated.. but the weather had been so beautiful all day, even when I was terrified. Ugh.

When I made it to camp, Margot already had her tent up and met 2 of the 3 other people camping here. I quickly set mine up too and the 4 of us spent the next couple hours talking and eating dinner. These two hikers are from Australia, so many of the places they were talking about Margot knew about too, since she recently lived there. It was entertaining for sure.

Now, now I’m in bed, it’s sprinkling off and on and it’s chilly, but I’m warm in my sleeping quilt-with only normal sleeping layers on, no down booties needed tonight! Tomorrow we have an 11 mile hike to get to this campground that a bus comes by and will take us into Stehekin. It only comes at certain times, so we’re going to try to make the 12:30 one. That way we have more time in town to get to the campground, set up shop, get quarters and detergent from the lodge (that’s fully booked-boo), shower, do laundry and eat all the things. Yep. That sounds perfect. Goodnight y’all. Let’s all pray you get to read these soon-which would mean I’d have service or WiFi! What a thought 😉