Category: Long Distance Trails

Start: 357.6

Stop: 367.8

Today’s miles: 10.2

Total PCT miles: 555.6

I slept horribly. It’s possible that it was because I was in a tent city and I happened to drink all the caffeine in the world during the afternoon yesterday. I tossed and turned and rolled and flopped and all around didn’t sleep much at all. There was also lights on and trucks flying by.. sometime around 1am I decided to put my headband over my eyes like an eye mask. It helped so much!

When I woke up, it was because I felt like I was baking. When I opened my eyes I couldn’t see, I forgot I had the headband on! I ripped it off and was shocked to find that I was in direct sunlight, roasting, and it was almost 7:30am. Welp. Guess it’s time to get up!

I was about to start packing but decided to go pee first, since I needed to walk all the way to the front of the store to do so. I put my phone on a charger, said hi to Marquis and Margot who were both already up and at the picnic tables, handled my business, then went back to pack.

I got everything but my food packed and then took my food stuff to the picnic tables and started figuring out my life. I had way too many dinners! But they’re all my favorites so I didn’t want to give anything away. Mom also sent me some yummy coffee as a surprise! I’m pretty happy about that!

I went inside the store and bought myself breakfast and then some snacks for the trail. More and more people started to wake and hang out at the picnic tables. We somehow didn’t leave to walk to trail until 11am. Haha. It was good though, it gave me a chance to update the blog, almost completely, and post some pictures. All in all I was really enjoying sitting around listening and chiming in on the hiker chatter.

We started climbing immediately once we hit the trail. It was hot. It was buggy. Two miles later the three of us were in our underwear swimming in some tiny lake we passed. The hard part was leaving town, any mileage we made today was just easing up the next three days, so it really didn’t matter much. When we were drying out and eating lunch (left over pizza, yum) 3 more hikers showed up-Crash, RaveDaddy, and I forgot the guy’s name (sorry guy).. the first two immediately got in the water, too. Never pass up a chance to swim!

We continued climbing after the lake, close to the top of the ascent we had perfect views of Mount Rainier without a single cloud covering its summit. It was gorgeous! And then the trail followed a ridge for a bit, crossed over a pass, and then gave even more epic views of Rainier before going back down into the woods. We stopped for water a few times, including a side hike at 5:30 that we were considering camping at.. but then decided to push instead 2 more miles to the next site.

Now that we’re here, I’m glad we pushed. This site is bigger, slightly less buggy, and out in the open. Even still, we had to set up camp fast and climb inside our tents thanks to the bloodsuckers. We set up in a circle though, so we all talked and laughed while waiting on the sun to set. Another hiker, a NOBO named Scraps, showed up and gave us the details of what’s ahead and we did the same for him.

Tomorrow we’ll have a 7 mile climb to the top of the Goat Rocks, which we can then summit Old Snowy Mountain and then we go over the Knife’s Edge. He said there were a couple sketchy rock scramble parts but that the views were epic. We’re all pretty excited about that! I’m not excited about climbing for 7 miles, but knowing the views will be stunning makes it worth it. Until then, goodnight y’all!

Start: 367.8

Stop: 383.1

Today’s miles: 15.3

Total PCT miles: 570.9

I think today might be my favorite day so far on trail! If not absolutely favorite, definitely top 3.. nah, it was definitely my number one. It was unbelievable!

I slept awful, not sure why.. but I finally dozed off well after 4am and when my watch vibrated at 6:30 I did not want to get up.. but Margot and Marquis were both basically packed and staring at me through their tents. Haha. Crap. They had been trying to wake me, but I slept through their whispered calls.

They left before I had my tent packed, but I was able to quickly finish up and get on trail just before 7! Not too bad! I was happy with it. The first several miles were through the woods, the trail padded with small pine cones and soft dirt. It was around 9 when I started to climb up the steep ascent of the day, the one that took us out of the woods and into exposed stunning scenery for miles and miles all around.

We sat around and filtered snowmelt water on some rocks by a huge meadow. Snow patches were around, but nothing crazy. Jagged peaks jutted out above us and we could see Mount Rainier with every turn of a switchback. From the stream the climb got more intense and steep. We crossed lots of water and seriously I was mesmerized by the beauty of this place. It felt untouched and pristine. Tons of different colored butterflies and bees and dragonflies flitted around to all the wildflowers, the grass was popping up, so lush.

At some point we reached the ridge line and the trail weaved across the edges, with steep drop offs on one side or the other, sometimes both.. they called this part the Knife’s Edge. Looking up ahead it was easy to psych yourself out, because it looked way sketchier than it actually was. Once you were close enough to see it, it was no big deal at all. Don’t get me wrong, if you slipped and fell, well.. you’d only do it the one time.. but otherwise it was just spectacular views from every single angle.

From the Knife’s Edge the trail hit a junction, the alternate being the steep climb up to the base of Old Snowy Mountain-the steep climb included tons and tons of slate and scree to slip and twist your feet on. The regular PCT route crossed 2 snowy sections that were steep, but potentially not that bad-however the steeper, slate and scree climb was known for way better views. It’s not like it was miles and miles of an alternate trail, it was just a short but different way to get around the same mountain top.

When we finally got to the junction to either head up to the summit of Old Snowy Mountain or continue on the alternate to reconnect with the PCT, we took a break and sat at the top with stellar views, with Driver and his friend. They shared a beer with me (they had brought 3)! It was awesome, drinking a Washington made IPA at this mountain top with views of Mount Rainier, Mount St Helen’s, and Mount Adams! It really couldn’t be beat!

I sat and hung out while Marquis and Margot made the side trip to summit Old Snowy. I just didn’t want to rock climb or slide down anything extra today. When they were back, we still had almost 8 miles to make it to camp. Sheesh, the views really sucked us in today! We started heading down the other side and reconnected with the PCT. I took a wrong turn and had to back track, thankfully only after a few minutes.

The other side of this mountain was also covered in wildflower meadows and was beautiful as could be. Even still, my feet started to ache. And I realized I let my face and my legs get sunburnt. Why didn’t I put on sunscreen? I have some readily available in my hip pocket! Sheesh. I slowed way down. We all met back up at a hidden waterfall that was quite gorgeous, it’s own little oasis, and then I slowly followed them, watching as they got farther and farther ahead.

I eventually made it to camp around 6:45 ish and we went to find somewhere to set up. There’s several other people here tonight, too, including my new beer sharing friends lol. We set our tents up, got water from the lake, and immediately retreated inside our safe havens, because after a day of basically zero mosquitoes, they’re here. Ugh.

I really hope I can sleep better tonight. I’m not sure what my problem is but the last few haven’t been very restful at all. Once my phone is charged, I’m shutting my eyes and trying my best to drift off to dreamland. Goodnight y’all.

Start: 383.1

Stop: 403.4

Today’s miles: 20.3

Total PCT miles: 591.2

Today wasn’t very exciting, especially after the day we had yesterday. I refused to get up before 7am-and even then I was on trail by 7:30, only a few minutes after the others. It had just started sprinkling as I was packing inside my tent, so I ended up with a wet tent to pack. Boo.

It was cold, windy, and raining. Thankfully the rain was light, so with my rain jacket on I felt warm enough when I was moving. The temperature was somewhere in the 50s all day, with mostly cloud cover until later in the afternoon. This didn’t stop the mosquitoes though, if I stopped for anything at all I was immediately swarmed.

I leapfrogged with Driver and his friend all morning and then caught up to Margot around lunchtime. We ate chips together, both not really wanting our other food-I have too many dinners so I could have cooked something but the bugs were too much. We ended up hiking close by each other the rest of the afternoon. There were no real views to see, either from the clouds or because of being in dense woods.

At one point she pointed out Mount Adams to me.. yesterday it seemed so far away, and today the base of it shocked me by how close and absolutely massive that mountain was! I had no idea we had gotten so close in just a day! Crazy! I wish the clouds would have cooperated so I could have gotten a better look, but no dice.

We made it to our designated campsite area by 4pm.. 20 miles done. There were tons of people camped here, but no Marquis. We sat and ate some skittles before deciding to walk the extra 0.3 of a mile to the next campsite, since it also has water. We weren’t sure if we’d stay there if he wasn’t there or keep pushing until we found him, since it was still pretty early.

Our sore feet were grateful that he was at the next site. Theres a bigger creek rushing by with brownish water, and then the back of the campsite has a crystal clear smaller stream feeding into it. It’s perfect! We all agreed to stay here and spent the next 4 hours setting up our tents, laughing, eating dinner and laughing some more. I have the most fun around these two.

Tomorrow we have another 20.3 miles to go to get to the road crossing into Trout Lake. The last shuttle leaves at 4:30pm, so hopefully tomorrow goes as smoothly as today did. It feels fast to be in town again already, but it’ll be another town with camping out back instead of a bed, so it doesn’t feel as exciting as it should. I mean, hot shower, clean clothes and apparently an awesome taco truck *is* super exciting.. but a real bed sounds pretty nice, too.

Knowing I have to get up early is making my eyelids droop already. Time to get some shut eye. Sweet dreams, y’all.