OMG WA! You are so beautiful! Lots of snow up here in the north Cascades and tons of wildflowers too! Woops, I got a little ahead of my self.
So we finally made it to Seattle from California. It took some last minute airline tickets, restaurant hopping with Pounce in downtown San Fran and a few hours of sleep on the concrete floor in the San Francisco terminal (hiker trash style) to get there. Once in Seattle, our good friend Pongo from the trail was kind enough to pick us up at the airport. We went and had a lovely breakfast together at Linda's on Pine Street in downtown Seattle and then headed over to the REI flagship store to buy Ferd some new shoes and some stove fuel. We also hit up Safeway to grab food for the trail.
The drive to Hart's Pass, where we will start hiking, took longer than planned since Pongo and his worthless navigator Ferd made it all the way to the Canadian border before realizing that we had missed the turn for Highway 20 almost sixty miles back near Mt. Vernon. Once on Highway 20 we stopped at a BBQ joint in Concrete and drove through the amazing North Cascades National Park. Pongo and Ferd kept stopping the car to take photos of the sunset so it was getting pretty dark. I guess we weren't getting to the trailhead tonight... No matter, we stopped at this neat little store/resort/bar in Manzama for refreshments before camping a few miles out of town.
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| Our first mile in WA! Amazing! |
In the morning we ate breakfast at the little resort in Manzama before heading up to Hart's Pass. Hart's Pass is beautiful with incredible views of the surounding mountains. We are so glad to be up here in Washington, but slightly ashamed that we've have never hiked in the Cascades when we lived in WA.
At the trailhead we decided to cache some food by hanging it high in a tree. That way we can hike to the border and back without having to carry the food needed for our walk from Hart's Pass to Stehekin. Hopefully no one (or a critter) will take our food! By the way, it is necessary to hike from Hart's Pass to the Canadian border because it is illegal to enter the US via the PCT, and breaking this rule supposedly can cost $5000 per hiker! Sucks to hike an extra 30 miles, we don't have the money to take our chances with border patrol/drones.
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| Dangit's favorite: pink paintbrush |
The walk north from Stehekin is pretty flat and the trail hugs the side of mountains with views of the snow dotted peaks in in the distance. The snow covered Mt. Baker just peaks over some peaks in the distance too. The wildflowers are abundant here and unlike CO and CA the blue lupine flowers fill the air with the most intoxicating fragrance imaginable. The weather is noticeably cooler and more moist than CA which is probably a good thing since it was getting really hot down there!
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| Anemone post bloom on near Woody Pass |
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| Crimson Columbine |
Just before Woody Pass we met our first "trailebrity", the famous Scott "Bink" Williamson who has walked the PCT more than a dozen times, broke the overall and unsupportd speed record 2-3 times, and was the first person to sucessfully yo-yo the PCT (hike the trail as an out and back). We exchanged a few words and then he was gone like a phantom. I asked him if he was hiking for a new record or if he was out for fun. He replied that he just wanted some time away from work but would see how things go. I hope he does break the unsupported record (60 days or something insane!) so that we can say that we met him on his first day.
Back at Hart's Pass we read that the trail was very washed out in some sections after Woody Pass and impassable for stock and possibly hikers. No worries, we thought. However, we met two section hikers that said that the turned back because the washouts were so bad. Yikes! Anyway, the washouts were more fun than anything. Dangit and I slide down the scree into each of the 5 or 6 washouts and climbed back up crumbling rock to get backup. It was tough, but sometimes walking on flat trail gets old and and need to be spiced up with a bit of unexpected danger!
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| Canada! Now to Mexico! |
The final miles walk to the border is overgrown with brush and is pretty unremarkable. Once at the border, we took some typical hiker pictures at the monument, signed the register. Dangit also took a video of Ferd visiting another country for the first time in his life. He only went about 20 feet into Canada, but what an exciting time in his life! Slightly pathetic :)... As we were about to pack up to start our long walk south, two other flip-floppers, Governor and Patches walked across the border from Manning Park, BC. What the heck! Jealous that they didn't have to walk those 30 miles up here. Oh well.
The hike back to Hart's Pass was beautiful heading south as well and we were delighted to find our food still hanging in the tree! I guess we get to eat food!!!
The next two days to Rainy Pass were pretty flat and gorgeous so we took a ton of pictures.
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| Atop Grasshopper Pass! |
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| Dangit on Grasshopper Pass |
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| Weirdest cloud formation ever... |
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| On our way to Cutthroat and Rainy Passes |
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| Neat thistles |
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| Bridge in North Cascades NP destroyed by runoff |
After Rainy Pass, we entered North Cascades National Park. There were tons of thimbleberries and huckleberries, which we feasted on. In fact these berries greatly reduce our hiking pace. It's amazing that we are able complete more than a few miles each day. We also saw our first bear! Our at least most of a bear... we really just saw a big black ball of fur trucking it down the mountains after it saw us!
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| "Did you forget about me?" -The Rattlesnake |
The final walk into Stehekin was long and hot. We did see a rattlesnake which caught us off guard. We thought we left those things in the CA desert!
