Author: Courtney

Start: 212.8

Stop: 232.6

Today’s miles: 19.8

Total PCT miles: 420.4

Whoa buddy, do my feet hurt today. I slept really good.. so good in fact that I woke up with my eyes puffy and swollen from burying my head into the down of my quilt. I think I’m slightly allergic, but not enough to be worrisome.

I was up, packed, and on trail by 6:20.. not bad. The mosquitoes were already awake, too, so I brushed my teeth while walking to avoid them as much as I could. I was slathered in deet and Picardin and if I could have walked with a flame thrower I would have. Marquis quickly passed me within the first few minutes of walking, but Margot was still packing when we left her.

The day started with a climb, and the sun was already bearing down on me. I was hot and profusely sweating by 7am. Yikes. This is going to be a L O N G day if it’s this hot already. The climb brought us to some gorgeous scenery, the huge rock mountain we slept under last night was now right next to me.. Margot later told me they called it Cathedral Rock.. I don’t know if she was joking or not though, but I’ll claim it to be true.

On the back side of this mountain, I started the 8 miles of descent. On the top 3 switchbacks, I got a little service and called Mom. I like this every couple days thing way better than once every 7-8 days.. but who knows what the future holds in that regard. We chatted for a minute and then I kept walking downhill. It would take me all day to get this almost 20 miles in.. simply because even though right now is downhill, the lower I go raises the chances for blowdowns and more bugs.. and then after that descent, it’s another 8-9 miles uphill to end the day. SOS.

So, I cruised downhill. I caught up to Marquis twice, and at some point got ahead of him when he stopped to eat his first lunch. I pushed on until after 11am when I found a shaded log to sit on at a stream crossing. There were hardly no bugs, a miracle in of itself. I got water and ate my lunch with my socks and shoes off.. and then I just sat there until Marquis got there.. and stayed sitting there til Margot got there. Eventually, an hour and a half later, I slowly started hiking again.

But only for a couple more miles. I came across a bridge with a shallow but wife crystal clear stream flowing under it. I wanted to get in. I wanted to stay all afternoon and camp 5 feet away.. but, I waited until they caught up. I soaked my feet and washed my legs, but didn’t get my clothes wet. Then I laid on the bridge and dried out. Annie and Riley came by and hung out there too. It was a beautiful spot.

When the realization sat in that I still had to climb this 8 miles before I could camp-I got my socks and shoes back on. Margot and Marquis had already left and I knew I was going to be dragging myself up that mountain. I turned on a podcast some friends from work told me about (pretty sure it was Keyara?) ‘Crime Junkie’ and listened to stories about people being abducted and murdered.. and honestly it helped distract me from the difficulty of the climb.

I caught up to Margot and Marquis and then the three of us leap frogged a bit. As we climbed higher, again the views opened up and the scenery looked unbelievable. Sharp jagged peaks and rounded rocky ones, clouds rolling through threatening rain but never releasing it. We were all worn slap out, barely moving, but determined to get to this pond to camp.

We rolled in just minutes before 7pm. The pond is gorgeous, more lake looking than pond.. and we walked around to find spots for our tents. We’re a bit spread out, and as if to welcome us: the mosquitoes reappeared. Our grand plans to eat dinner together on a pretty rock over looking the water was quickly squashed. I was in my rain gear and bug net, cussing, and setting up my tent.

A marmot, a potentially deaf and blind one at that, came through our campsites, completely unconcerned with us. I recorded him, talked to him, all kinds of stuff and he just couldn’t care less. He just continued to chew on whatever he found and ran around the area like we weren’t here. He came up to all of our tents.. which has me a little concerned for tonight. I pray he doesn’t chew through any of our tents.

It’s 9:15, the sun is behind a mountain in the distance, and the sky is slowly fading to darkness. I think both of them are asleep, I haven’t heard a rustle of their sleeping pads in a while. It’s just a little chilly, to where I’m comfortable under my quilt, dinner has been eaten, and I’m thinking it’s time to try to sleep. Tomorrow should be another 19+ mile day, and my feet are not thrilled about it. We’ll have another long downhill, followed by a long uphill and then several ups and downs from there.. but all over 5000 feet, so hopefully once up there we’ll be in the exposed areas with less bugs and blow downs. That’s the prayer anyway.

Start: 232.6

Stop: 252.2

Today’s miles: 19.6

Total PCT miles: 440

Before I drifted off last night, I could hear a helicopter flying overhead and it felt close. It was dark, and after 10pm, so I found that strange. It made me wonder if they were out on a rescue mission. I prayed everyone was ok.. and then drifted off quickly afterwards. I slept so dang great, I do remember waking up once or twice just to verify I wasn’t cuddling with the marmot from last night, but easily fell right back to sleep.

I got on trail by 6:30, a bit behind Marquis but before Margot. I didn’t see where Annie and Riley camped, they came and set up not too long before nightfall. The trail was immediate switchbacks downhill for several miles. Not too long after I got going, I saw and heard another helicopter flying over.. what in the world is going on?? As I got lower in elevation, into the valley floor, more and more blow downs were everywhere. I got a bit frustrated, because there was also a ton of water crossings and I didn’t keep my feet dry.

Not that it mattered, because around 9:45 I ran into Marquis sitting on a log before a creek crossing with no bridge. Like, there used to be one and now it was all gone, except for the bases on either side of the bank. There would be no dry crossing on this thing. I went first while he ate is either second breakfast or first lunch. The water was cold and fast but it was easy to cross. It came up to my knees in one spot but that was it.

I got to the other side and sat on the wooden base of the “bridge” to filter water. I decided I’d wait for Margot either way, even though I knew she’d be fine. Marquis crossed and just as he was getting into the water, she was coming down the hill. Perfect timing. We all sat on the base for a rest after they made it over.. none of us really excited about the climb to come.

From there, the trail climbed 2100 feet of elevation in 3.5 miles. It started in a burn zone, in hot blaring sun with no shade. I had my umbrella out for protection and literally was sweating through all of my clothes. It was brutal. (I found out days later from Marquis that is was 88 degrees on this day.. definitely can confirm that it felt like 88 degrees!)

When I finally came to a bunch of blowdown trees in a small chunk of other trees creating some shade, I tossed off my pack and decided 11am was going to be lunchtime today because I was too miserable to continue climbing right this second. And I wasn’t even half way up this beast of a climb.. and even when I made it up this climb, there was still a lot more to come before this day was over.

As I flopped down and started to pull out my food, Margot appeared and decided to do the same. We ate lunch together, both dreading our near future, and slowly started hiking again after close to 45 minutes of not moving. We made it to a big creek and refilled our water not long after we left our lunch spot.. and maybe 10-15 minutes after that, we passed an incredible waterfall all in the shade with a bridge and everything. If only we had pushed to here to eat lunch! Oh well, hindsight and all that.

The switchbacks continued climbing and eventually we made it to the top, where we found Marquis taking a break. From there we had a small descent and then came up to a circus around a huge range of mountains. We’d climb along the sides, easing higher until we’d cross over a pass, to then come down some before traversing across another mountain.. I could see the trail, way across the valley on the opposite side of where we were.. so it was like hiking in a “U” shape around this mountain range. Parts were seriously breathtaking!

What wasn’t so lovely was the rocks all over the place. There were rocks that reminded me of Pennsylvania, there were some that sounding like walking across hundreds of broken dishes and then some that sounded like walking over thousands of pennies. All of them hurt my feet, causing them to twist and turn and become extremely tender. There was some snow, too.. all of which we just walked around, or climbed down and across-none of it was scary or sketchy-which it definitely would have been if we couldn’t have maneuvered around it.

We passed some gorgeous lakes, some large, some small.. all beautiful. I got service on a ridge line and called Mom for a minute. My feet were on fire by then and she said I sounded sad-I wasn’t, I was quite thrilled with the beauty of the day-my feet were just ready to have my ass off of them.

The last mile or so ended up being uphill, after Marquis had said, “it’s all downhill from here!” And I had a minor meltdown. I was walking tenderly, at a snail’s pace, with the two of them behind me-laughing constantly at my rant of the climb after I thought we were done climbing for the day. They claim I was entertaining, really I was just hangry and tired.. but I’m glad I made them laugh.

We found the lake we were to camp at and scoped out a site. We ended up all three cramming into a small spot right beside the water. It’s tight, but it works, although Marquis has a pretty large rock in his vestibule.. haha whoops.

Margot and I soaked our feet when we got water to filter and I took forever to do anything else. Now, dinner has been eaten, finally, and I just finished actually blowing up my air mattress. It’s almost 9:45 already. I’m a little cold, but comfortable with my quilt (best purchase, seriously). As I’m writing this, there are people walking through our campsite with their bright ass headlamps on, shocked that we’re here.. and mostly blocking their access to the water. They’re being quiet now though.. since they realized we’re in bed. Hopefully they stay that way.

My feet are throbbing and every now and then a sharp pain shoots through them. I think I need some ibuprofen and to prop them up on my pack. So, that’s what I’m about to do.. all of that and to try to get some sleep. We get to town tomorrow and I can’t wait for that. Hopefully my feet relax a bit so I can get some rest before all the town chores. Goodnight, y’all.

Start: 252.2

Stop: 259.4

Today’s miles: 7.2

Total PCT miles: 447.2

I woke up to my tent and my quilt soaked from the lake condensation. One day I’ll learn that the prettiest views don’t always equal the best conditions for my gear. Crap.

I was on trail just after 6:30 and slow as ever. The trail climbed up and away from the lake and my feet were still aching from the last 2 almost 20 mile days. How in the world am I supposed to pick up the pace when my feet are struggling like this? At least nothing else hurts, ya know? It’s just tender feet, for now.

When I got service, I was up on a ridge and the views were gorgeous. I called my friend Kelly and caught up with her for a bit, then tried to FaceTime her so she could see the beauty.. but of course that was right when my service dropped out. Apparently, I was on the Kendall Katwalk.. and my God was it incredible! Views for days while walking along this narrow path of trail, sheer drop offs on either side, but a rock “ledge” kind of holding you in place.. it almost made me think of being on top of a castle wall or something.

On the way down the other side, I quickly realized that I was indeed not the only person that found that catwalk stunning, as I started to get bombarded by day hikers and trail runners coming up the way I was going down. I looked at my watch after I counted some 50 something people and saw that it was a Saturday. Of course everyone was out today in this beautiful weather.

I passed though so many more people and and their cute dogs, each time interrupting my speed to side step or make room for them to pass.. or to jump when a trail runner would appear out of thin air and zip past me fast enough to give me whiplash. I even took a hard fall to my knees (skinned them a little), but thank heavens it happened at the absolute perfect time, NO ONE SAW IT HAPPEN! I still don’t know how I lucked out there, but not a single soul was around for my trip, or my quick pop up to brush myself off.. milliseconds later, 3 women come by as I take my first step post fall and one complimented my shirt. Cool cool. Ignore the bloody knees please.

Silky past me around 9:15, which was nuts because I could have sworn she was ahead of us! I’m still confused on how that one played out.. but she had told me she’s didn’t feel all that great the day we hiked out of Stevens Pass, so she just had a few easier days before pounding out a big one.

When I got to the bottom of the trail at the parking lot for all these day hikers, I followed Marquis’ directions and headed into town. I was going to go to the cafe he and Silky were at, until he said it was expensive.. so I decided to go to the pancake house instead. Margot came not long after and so did Silky, Marquis and a guy we kept seeing the last few days, Stache. FakeSnake was at the entrance of the Inn attached to the pancake house, so he got breakfast with us, too.

There were six of us, loud smelly hikers, absolutely thrilled to crush some breakfast food. I got hash browns, biscuits and gravy, two eggs over medium and piled them all together.. then had a side of bacon. Perfection. Absolute perfection. We were there for almost 2 hours, all said and done.

Afterwards, Margot, Marquis, and I hitched to the next town over to get our resupply from a legitimate grocery store. The hitch took less than 10 minutes to get, and the couple drove us on a major highway over 20 minutes away.. and let us out right at the grocery store front door! I’m still so very blown away by the kindness of strangers!

We resupplied and Marquis found a motel that offered a hiker rate. We walked less than a mile to it, checked in to a huge room, as in tons of floor space, with two double beds. We took turns showering and then we had to hand wash our laundry in the sink and hang it up to dry-I make a terrible washing machine, for the record. Once our chores were done and we quit laying all of our stuff out to organize and had charging blocks connected.. we walked to a ski shop to look for things we needed.

Margot needs a new spork-she’s lost it twice now, the second time for good, and we all wanted to buy that Picardin lotion. Sadly, no dice. The guy working there told us to go to the Ace Hardware up the road, because theyd probably have all of that. We walked that way, to the largest Ace Hardware I’ve ever seen, and searched for our stuff. They had bug spray, but not the one we wanted. They had sporks and spoons and forks-but short cheaply made ones that were way overpriced. We left empty handed.

We hit the pizza food truck on the way back and got ourselves some dinner to carry to the room. We picked up some drinks from the gas station, and had a picnic dinner on our beds while watching Law and Order: SVU. Ah. Does it actually get better than this? I think not.

My feet are still aching. Margot hasn’t been sleeping very well, causing her to be dizzy when she’s hiking, so we agreed to give her the bed to herself tonight, with Marquis and I sharing, and then the next hotel we stay at, I’ll get my own room. I’ve been sleeping pretty good lately, and know how miserable it is when you go multiple days with bad sleep, so I’m perfectly happy with this arrangement.

Tomorrow, we have to hitch back to trail and then see how far we get. I’m not sure if we’re waking up early to get in a whole day or not, and I really don’t mind either way.. although sleeping in is always my favorite. We’ll see! Goodnight!