The Unpolished Princess

Start: 2624.7 + 10mi road walk to harts pass

Stop: 2632.8

Today’s miles: 18, but zero count

Total PCT miles: 187.8

I snoozed through two alarms before finally getting up at 6:07. I had to be packed and ready to go by 7am, and I really just wanted to sleep in. I still made it happen, and ended up being on the first shuttle to trail, with Thomas and Steffi, Margo, and an another guy I don’t know the name of.. I do know he’s a geologist though. Some others were coming too, but they’d be on the next shuttle. I felt a little guilty being the last one up and moving and still getting the first ride, but I consoled my guilty conscious with the fact that the majority of the ones staying have already hiked 700 miles before now.. so it’s going to take me longer.

Raven, the caretaker and official shuttler, drove us to sign our names in a PCT register and then up to the road to Hart’s Pass. Because of a big wash out, the road is closed at a certain point, so we had to walk an extra 10 miles before we ever got to trail. And then, we’d have to hike another 30 miles to get to the Canadian border before turning around and hiking back 30 miles to Hart’s Pass and then onward southbound. 40 more miles that don’t count towards the 2655 of this trail! Sheesh!

The road walk was beautiful. It was dirt and gravel and overall seemed to be in great shape. The 5 of us all spread out pretty quick, getting to our own paces. Margo and I joked that they’d reopen the road tomorrow.. you know, after we shlepped up the dang thing. Ten miles, all up hill. Talk about breaking back in!

Steffi and Thomas beat me to the campground at Hart’s Pass, but only barely. I point this out because Thomas made the comment that I was quick and kept up.. BUT that’s just him being kind. They’re fast, as hell, but it got cold as could be, so they stopped to put on jackets. He also has a YouTube channel, so they’d stop for awesome video footage. I walked the entire 4 hours, with my only breaks being to stand still for 10-30 seconds and to drink some water. If they didn’t stop for stuff, I’d probably never see them!

When we first arrived at the pass, I kid you not it started to snow. Just light little flakes, disappearing when they hit the ground, or us. I ended up putting on my rain jacket to try to stay warm. I was cold, but I’m not complaining.. rain would be worse and-with it being so cold: NO BUGS! Honestly, I prefer it. At least, right now. We’ll see how I feel on the matter when ive been shivering for days on end.

We ate our lunches on a picnic table at the pass, Geo (geology guy until I learn his name, super nice) and Margo both caught up with us and ate with us too. Margo is French but has been living in Australia before recently moving back home.. she is hysterical. Her one liners and little quips make me laugh-dare I say it?-out loud, and often! Today is day one for both of them, they aren’t here together though.. so they’re the first real SOBO hikers I’ve met. Pretty neat.

We all put our extra food that will get us to Stehekin once we hike this 70 miles to the border and back in a bear box at the campground. This is typical, and everyone has their names and dates on their stuff, some even with notes that say, “PCT hiker, a poor one, so please don’t steal, I’ll starve to death.” Haha-while I can relate to the starving, I also know I’d be able to walk that stupid 10+ miles down, hitch a ride to town (hopefully) and buy more food-but I really don’t want to. People also left their really expensive ice axes and extra gear in there, too. I think this community is a safe one, hikers that is, so fingers crossed everyone gets their own stuff back when they get there.

The trail from there was just simply magical. Like so magical I’m actually excited to hike it twice. The mountains, some grey and sharp and spotted with snow, others rounded and covered in rich shades of green, had me mesmerized. I was audibly giddy. I didn’t listen to music or audiobooks.. I just soaked it all in. Even if it was cold as hell and snowing off and on, I was all smiles!

Tons of other hikers passed me going south, all of the ones I asked were SNOWBOs like us, besides Geo and Margo of course. I lost count after 8 or 9, but it was probably in the low teens. I was passed by Wolf, a SNOWBO that stayed at lions den last night and was on the second shuttle-she’s real fast, and to my delight was just as excited about the views as me! Before she completely smoked me, I could hear her cheers and “wahoos” and knew whatever corner I was about to round would be stunning.

There were some patches of snow to cross.. but it was all easy stuff like my last day before Ashland. Nothing tricky or scary, and it hardly slowed me down any. If anything, my only trouble was keeping my focus on the trail because everything around me was gorgeous, and for the most part included very steep drop offs, my head stayed on a constant swivel. Footing matters, even if the inclines were mostly kind, and included switchbacks.

I caught up to Steffi and Thomas and decided to camp with them instead of hiking on two more miles. Thomas found a campsite/area with zero wind! It’s surrounded by trees but a big embankment keeps the wind we can all hear howling on the other side.. and thank goodness, because I’m pretty sure it’s in the 30s right now. We set up our tents, put on warm layers, ate dinner together chatting the whole time, and then almost in unison, Steffi and I were like, “ok, tent time.” It was only 6pm but it’s cold so we wanted to snuggle up in our beds and get cozy warm before night fall. It worked out beautifully for me, I finished a book that will be returned once I have service and I got to write this out, too.

My only problem now: I need to pee again but I’m so warm in my cocoon that I don’t want to get out. However: needing to pee in cold weather actually uses up a lot of energy and is bad for you to do, so, it looks like I’ll have to suck it up and get out there. Hopefully my noise doesn’t wake them up any. Ok, sweet dreams!

Start: 2632.8

Stop: 2648.9

Today’s miles: 16.1, but zero

Total PCT miles: 187.8

The three of us finally got on trail around 7:30. I kept pushing snooze, even though the sky was getting light around 4:45. It was cold! I was snuggled up and warm in my sleeping bag, but I could see the frost on my tent from the snow overnight. I did not want to get out of my perfectly warm bubble.

Alas, I did. I didn’t have enough water for oatmeal and coffee, plus I didn’t take my synthroid early enough, so I put belvita breakfast cookies in my side pocket of my pack and kept it moving. Once I crossed water, I filtered a liter and then ate my cookies while walking.

The trail, even in this white cloud we were walking through, was stunning. It was foggy but the green of the fir trees popped out. There were a few blow downs to go under or around, but nothing too terrible. I was happy and the views that I could see were still quite lovely.

I saw a couple deer and walked through a burn scar. This had to be the fire from last year.. the one that closed the border, so hikers that had literally hiked all the way from Mexico had to turn around as Hart’s Pass and miss the border by only 30 miles. Heartbreaking really. And the scorched zone I walked through was sad, too. These big majestic giants charred and broken. I know I’ll have a lot more burned areas to walk through, and potentially even fires to detour, but this one felt significant.

Once I got up to Rock Pass, the scenery was unreal. These huge peaks jutting out of the ground, many surrounded in snow, and the trail just wormed its way up and around them, switchbacks and steep slides, views, even in clouds, for days. I wish I could see it without the clouds and snow/hail/sleet/rain.. but even still, incredible.

The temperature steady dropped and the snow didn’t let up-neither did the wind. I caught up to A-Train (Steffi) and Drake (Thomas) several times to chat, and we also ate lunch together. It got so cold sitting there eating my hot oatmeal and coffee that I didn’t have for breakfast that I was back on trail the second I cleaned up. I was visibly shaking.

The trail from here was stunning though. I was singing Christmas songs because of all of the trees covered in fresh snow. The good thing about this snow now is that it’s not enough to accumulate to anything, but the cold weather also makes the current patches of snow we have to cross hard instead of slushy. This is great for me because the footprints that have previously stepped in and sank a little bit have refrozen and I can step right into them like steps and not slide. So far anyway.

I met A-train and Drake at the junction to a beautiful alpine lake. They found a perfect spot for their 3 man tent and were willing to let me set up practically on top of them to get me out of the wind and a lot of the snow. The problem was the spot for me was a bit more slanted than I thought I’d handle. As I’m laying here now, in a different spot I found-I should have taken the slanted spot.

I walked to the lake to see it: gorgeous minus the winds from Satan himself blowing snow in every direction. I walked around and scouted out spots.. soooo many would be perfect if it wasn’t in the current weather conditions. I found 3 decently flat spots, 2 covered by big trees, one with a small tree and a big rock I could get up next to for wind protection. One of the 2 with big trees also had big dead trees hanging. Not for long in this wind. The one with the rock I decided didn’t have enough protection. So, the third choice: I stood there shivering for 10 minutes.. watching the wind. Seeing where the snow landed.

I even went and checked out other sites after I saw Marcus (Gio’s real name) walk through. There was a good one, almost completely dry ground, but it was in a bit of a hole and my tent is too big to fit. I walked back to option three. Watched the wind again and then set up shop. I shit you not, not 5 minutes later the wind blew in different directions, swirling around-and my tent was getting pounded with snow and sleet.

I was committed, and too cold to pack it all back in and move-so I quickly finished the set up, climbed inside with a bandana and wiped out the water from this morning and then dragged my pack in. I was shivering the whole time I was setting up my bed, putting on extra layers, climbing under my covers. Shivering so hard that after 30 minutes of not getting warm, I pulled out my emergency bivvy and put it around my sleeping pad and quilt, and pulled it up to my hips.

Immediately I started to warm up. I did a big no-no and ate my dinner sitting right here. I’m so cold the idea of going to pee seems unreasonable. But I know I’ll have to hear shortly. Hopefully if there are any bears around they’re hunkered down out of this cold, too, and if not-maybe they want to snuggle. Once I go pee, and get back in here for the night, I’m going to pull that bivvy up higher. I just don’t want the condensation to get my down quilt wet, which I know it will. I think I’ll leave my liner between the quilt and the bivvy-maybe as a middle man.. it just doesn’t dry out fast. So much to think about, and hypothermia is a real scare out here.

Tomorrow, I’ll get up and leave my tent and sleeping stuff here and walk to the Canadian border and back. It’s just over 6 miles one way. I’m hoping I’ll do it quick enough to then pack up my left gear and hike out of this cold hole.. maybe 8 miles to a beautiful tent site I saw today. The good thing with having to turn around at the border is I know I can safely do everything for at least the 30 miles back to Hart’s Pass. Because I’ve already done it once!

I would go on chatting about all the stuff in my head, because there’s a lot, but I’m cold as hell and my fingers are starting to go numb. So, maybe tomorrow. My miles officially start counting once I hit the border! I think at the top of these posts where I put the milage, I’ll stick to SOBO numbers.. so tomorrow starts at 0 and Mexico will be 2655.

Alright. Goodnight! I bet y’all are much warmer than me right now!

Start: 2648.9 to Canadian border and then to

Stop: 17-SOBO

Today’s miles: 23.3/only 17 SOBO count

Total PCT miles: 204.8

The beauty here is unmatched, but damn it’s cold as hell! That snow I thought wouldn’t accumulate to much turned our world into a winter wonderland. In the middle of the night I could see the snow piling on my tent and making it sag, so I’d break it off by pushing on it praying that was enough to not bring it down on me.

The bivvy warmed me up and I slept with it all night, of course waking up to a damp sleeping bag liner. Crap. And it wouldn’t be warm or sunny enough today to do anything about that. I woke from dream at 5:45, and it was an odd one: NancyPants Fischer was giving me a hug and when I realized it was her I squeezed her so tight she fussed at me to let go, with that laugh of hers still in my ears now (and a couple tears now, too).

Then after talking awhile, not that I can remember about what, she goes, “ok, you’re gonna be late! Get to it!” Kissed my cheek and I woke up. Dammit y’all, I really flippin miss her.
With that dream on my mind, I couldn’t press snooze. And then when I noticed the white glow outside my tent, I started to panic. I quickly packed up just my food bag (after getting a snack out of it for my hip belt pocket), my electronics, and my water filtering stuff. I stuffed my sleeping bag in the dry bag and rolled it a few times, so if my tent collapsed while I was gone my sleep stuff should stay fine. I left my sleeping bag liner and the bivvy laid out to hopefully.. dry? Lol yeah right. But beggars can’t be choosers. I got my shoes on and was out the door.

My God it was a totally different scene than the one I saw before bed. Completely white all around. I peed real quick, then shoveled the snow away and off of my tent.. walked over to see if Marquis (I spelled his name wrong, still pronounced like Marcus) left his tent. I already saw his massive footsteps leading to the trail. He did, so I felt better leaving mine, too.

It was 6:15 when I passed A-Train and Drake’s tent.. no footsteps to be seen in the snow besides Marquis’ that I was following.. but I didn’t want to yell to them if they were finally sleeping well. I regretted that later, when I was worried about them not catching up to me, until they did 😉

It was completely white all around except for the set of footprints I was following. Thankfully because of him, I knew where the trail was going so my mind was at ease. I passed Wolf and two people hiking with her just as they were getting up from their tents, Pica and FoodTruck (they camped about 3 miles closer to the terminus) and they were just as shocked as I was about the snow! Hearing that first sound of “WTF?!” Had me laughing because I did the same thing-amazement, shock, slight horror. It’s one thing to wake up, look outside and see snow and then put on a sweatshirt while watching tv.. completely different feeling when it’s coming down and you’re miles and miles from safety and a warm anything.

I carried on. Not far from passing them, the snow turned to sleet, and then to rain: cold cold rain. Y’all, I was hiking in every layer I own and the cold water now seeping into my shoes, in a way the snow had not, had me shivering! It was pure torture ! It rained like this all the way to the terminus. I ran into Marquis about 15-20 minutes before reaching the border. He had the same thoughts I did.. try to get as far out of this hole and snow as possible today. The problem is, the border was 6.3 miles downhill.. which meant turning around was 6.3 uphill to pack up the stuff we left, then another mile or so of snowy/potentially more sketchy switchbacks and ridge crossings.. yikes.

I got to the terminus, walked a little farther so I can say I went to Canada.. and then took pictures to mark the occasion, before stripping some layers and protecting them inside my pack. I also decided to put my phone away too, just to be cautious, with the rain and snow.. and I felt confident I’d have footprints to follow.

I was the only person the most north on the PCT for a solid hour or so! There was no one more north than me until I ran into A-train and Drake! It was a weird feeling! I was happy to see them, just under an hour after I reached the terminus and started hiking back south. They ended up packing all their gear. We talked a bit about the plans for the day: they too wanted out of this bowl. There was a campsite 5 miles past the lake, 8 miles from the lake, and then 11 miles from the lake. The second 2 seemed safer, since those would be lower elevations, with the last one being the lowest. We all made “idk” faces and decided we’d just see how far we got.

I got back to camp at 12:30, slower than expected. I was shaking from the cold. I ate my oatmeal and drank hot coffee in my tent, letting all of those things warm me through. Then I packed as quick as I could. I had to reshovel snow off my tent before I could take it down. It was hard to do, and I kept pausing to warm up my hands. Now, I’ve realized I’ve broken both thumb nails pretty low on the nailbed.. it had to be when I was taking the tent down and forcing out frozen stakes. Before setting off, I put on my microspikes. Better to be safe!

I looked for Marquis but couldn’t see his tent.. I was pretty sure those were a second set of his footprints though, so I assumed he was in front of me. I was so thankful for him, all of the sketchy areas he would drag his trekking poles and so I could see exactly where the trail went. At the top of the switchbacks when it came time to go up to a snowy peak, he drew arrows showing the better way to go. A true Angel, seriously.

I started running into northbound hikers, at least 7-9 of them. I’d ask about Marquis and A-Train and Drake (I assumed they passed me while I was packing and eating, but I couldn’t differentiate their steps in the snow). Half the people saw all of them, the rest saw one of them.. I had no clue where anyone was. Except for Margo, one girl said she saw that Margo decided to walk back to Hart’s Pass yesterday.. her pad kept deflating and her leggings were torn, I hope she got to town and warmed up ok.

I made it to Woody Pass: the tent sites were covered in snow. I made my way down and heard an avalanche or a tree breaking and sliding towards the area we ate lunch at yesterday: note to self, don’t camp there! And all this time I never caught up to anyone. So, I kept chugging along. Around 3pm I saw a site or two that I could make work, but decided against it because I’d be cold as hell waiting for morning to come for that long. I was warming up pretty nicely with the steady movement.

I made it up Rock Pass and the sketchy snow area just after 5pm. Then, I made it to the next campsite area we had all talked about just before 6, and it was a ghost town. No A-Train and Drake.. No Marquis. Hmmm.. did they carry on to do a 23 mile day? It is all down hill from here to the campsites. Surely that’s what they did.. so I kept going another 2.3 miles.

I get to the bottom of this mountain and can see a tent! I walked over to it, and it’s not either of my friends. It’s FoodTruck that was hiking with Wolf and Pica. Only he is set up here, so he must have wanted to stop early. Dammit, where the hell are my friends?! Oh well, surely I missed them somehow. I found a flat spot with some distance between us so my crinkling and rotisserie-ing doesn’t bother FoodTruck, and I set up shop. I took my time and dried out the inside with the last bandana I have.. Then once everything was inside and set up, I ate dinner closer to the trail.

After dinner I got in bed for the night. Not long afterwards I heard a couple walk through. I popped my head out so fast hoping for my friends, but it was a different couple, Molly and Harry, hiking north at the moment. They did as I did and walked around until they found were they wanted to lay claim. And now, at 9:20pm it’s starting to get dark. My bed stuff is a little damp. I’m cold, but nothing like last night. It’s drizzling a little bit out there and I think it’s time for me to roll over and call it a night. Sweet dreams, y’all.