Hiking The Pacific Trail Part VII

Hi all -

Miles hiked: 98

Days hiked: 5

Days off: 1

I reached Stehekin, and will be at the northern end of the trail (Manning Park, Canada) in another 5.5 or 6 days. I'm leaving this afternoon to go back out on the trail.

This last section was the hardest one of the whole trail. 40 miles of the PCT had been rerouted due to 2003 flood damage, but all the thruhikers (including me) took the old PCT route anyway. I've been avoiding taking alternate routes and detours all along, but this is one time I should have taken it. Seven major bridges were destroyed due to avalanches and flooding and there were two major washout/dropoffs. One was particularly sudden. If I'd been hiking at night, I'm sure I would have walked right off the edge of that 20 foot cliff. One hiker quit counting after he reached the 200th blowdown (logjams of HUGE fallen trees that we have to climb under, over or walk hundreds of feet around on steep up or downhill). A few trees were as big as a small jet, and often there were multiple trees fallen on top of each other. It was wild. I'm not exaggerating about the whole "big as a jet" thing, either.

It was a full body workout, and my knees were toast by the time I limped into Stehekin. The trail hadn't been maintained since 2003, so we were pushing our way through raspberry cane and tall brush. Ugh. I can't count the number of times I was sure I was lost because it just didn't seem like it could even BE the PCT. Plus, I was navigating by the sun because I'd stupidly lost my compass right at the beginning of this section. I'm getting pretty good at identifying which direction I'm going in by the sun. Just pray for me that the good weather holds until I get to Canada, and can buy another compass!

To add insult to injury, the maintainers who designed and put signage up for the detour left the detour notification/explanation at the NORTHERN end of the detour instead of the southern end -- which didn't help the thruhikers much. It sure explained alot once we reached the END of the misery, but we were all annoyed that we had to hike through that mess without knowing why it was so messed up.

The upside of this section is that beautiful teal-green and super-clean Mica Lake was right in the beginning of the rough part, and I took a lovely bath there -- so at least I was hiking "clean". Well, relatively clean. At least I wasn't itchy as I was climbing over trees. I'm really trying to look on the bright side here ;)

When I reached Stehekin, there were lots of thruhikers here waiting to get their packages from the post office. I've never seen so many hiker packages stacked in a post office. There were hundreds. I had three waiting for me, myself. And thanks to Carolyn/ Jeff and Annette who sent me goodies here. I loved what you sent -- dried fruit is like gold to me right now. And Carolyn, those dehydrated mangoes were super-yummy. Thanks!

Stehekin is a lake resort village that is so far back in the woods, the locals claim that even the sunlight is piped in. You can only reach it by ferry boat, or by foot (on the PCT). There's no phone reception here, and no public pay phone -- so, sorry Mom, no phone call this time. It's a pretty little place though, and the people are all quite relaxed. The mood around the village is one of general rejoicing and anticipation, as the many hikers trade trail stories and mentally prepare for the last 89 mile push to Canada. It's a little strange for me, since this won't be the end of the hike for me -- but I'm actually not sad about that. I can't wait to experience Northern California after I get to Canada. Pretty fall leaves, and hopefully dry weather with no bugs. Ultimate hiking weather. The wildfires that caused the trail closure in that area are apparently all out, and the smoke is almost totally cleared away. I'm so glad I didn't hike that section when it was thick with smoke, like most of the other hikers did. Now I'm actually going to get to see the mountains & views!

I hope everyone's doing well and enjoying their September.

Love,
Dawn