10/19/2023
Section: Milepost 2441.2 to 2466.9
Total Trail Miles: 2464.8 Miles
Distance: 27.1 Miles
Moving Time: 12:34 Hrs
Elevation Gain: 5538 ft
I slept sooooooo well last night. Basically did a hard restart. Amanda said I was talking a million miles a minute in my sleep, so that’s confirmation that my body was getting what it needed. I’ve said this before on this blog but will say it again, one of the most overlooked and underappreciated things about true thru hiking is the sleep you get on the trail. It might take a month or more to get to that point, but your body eventually goes into caveman mode and when it does, the sleep is immaculate.
My stings itched this morning. I have about 7 of them in total and they’re already starting to scab over, which is making them itch like hell. Amanda just keeps telling me not to itch them - good luck on that. It was a beautiful and surprisingly warm morning. Don’t think I've been able to get under way without my puffy pants for a while but that was indeed what I did this morning. The soft glow of early light filtered through the trees as we finished up our breakfast and got under way. Today was the last stage before hitting Steven’s pass and marked the first ending of the final three stages - Snoqualmie -> Stevens, Stevens -> Rainey Pass, Rainey Pass -> Manning Park.
The stage today starts with a 1400’ descent to towards the bottom of the Cle Elum River Cirque before climbing back up the north rim, crossing the river and passing over Deception Pass. At the pass, the PCT flattens for about a mile and then begins a second stage climb up to 5900’ on the western shoulder of Surprise Mountain. On the 3 mile climb there, the trail crosses Deception creek and passes Deception Lake. On the northwestern corner of Surprise Peak, the PCT winds around the northern slopes of the mountain and descends to Glacier Lake before climbing out of the basin to Trap Pass between Surprise Lake and Trap Lake. From here, the path makes an undulating descent to Hope Lake where the Tunnel Creek Lake trail joins from the west. From here, the PCT makes a 4 mile up-down maneuver and passes above Josephine Lake before climbing up the backside of Stevens Pass ski resort and descending to Highway 2 under the Jupiter Express lift.
We got a 6:30 start this morning, which is pretty good considering our recent slide to later and later starts. We are meeting Amanda’s parents at Hwy 2 this evening and don’t want them to have to wait for us too long. No stings this morning as we made the first descent down toward the Cle Elum river cirque. At the bottom, we turned back uphill and began climbing. As we neared Deception Pass we saw a face that we had only briefly seen in the first few days on the trail. Peanut Butter was a young hiker we had run into in Lake Morena on Day 2 of the trail. He was the one who had come off the Arizona Trail to start the PCT in May and we had talked to him on a park bench for an hour before he had left to carry on into the night. Now, 5 months later, we ran into him again in the early fall, on the northern stretches of this amazing trail. “Peanut Butter!?” I said to him as he and his hiking companion approached. “Yes?” he said, not recognizing us immediately. “We saw you in Lake Morena,” I responded. “Oh my god, yes, I remember now!” he said “how have you been?” We continued to summarize, in very short fashion, the last 5 months of our adventures. The Sierra, the fires, all the things that had made this year so interesting. Peanut Butter was finishing up this last section between Stevens and Snoqualmie that was now open again after the fires. We talked for about 5 minutes but eventually said our goodbyes and continued on down the trail. Really cool experience to see someone for the first time in 5 months on this thin, 2600 mile line that keeps us all connected.
We continued on north. Occasionally, I could hear voices behind us and a few times I saw the figures of 2 hikers but they never seemed to catch us as we carried on, even when we stopped near Surprise Peak for lunch. Shortly after, we put in our audiobooks and put our heads down. I could see that we were going to be a little late to Stevens but, without much in the way of service, it was impossible to get the word out to the Porters.
We hiked into the late afternoon. The trail in the final 3rd of the stage was like an annoying seesaw. Tons of little ups and downs that never let us settle into a sustained climb or descent like we typically want to. Eventually, about an hour before sunset and very exhausted, we reached Josephine Lake. We took a small break here and ate the rest of our food, before committing to the 1500 foot climb up to the ski resort.
We climbed up and up. Despite this being a small climb relative to what we had done in the thousands of miles south of us, we were beat. The day had been nice, but we are running on fumes. The sun set on us as we climbed and the lights on the top station of the Jupiter Express lift came on. It looked like an alien spaceship sitting at the top of our target ridge, waiting to abduct us. We reached the top around 6:30, the ridge illuminated by the station. No one was home though, which gave it kind of an eerie cast. At this point Amanda was done. This might have been a top-5 “Done” moment for my girl. The day had been long, meandering and very stony - a combination of trail conditions that she really doesn’t enjoy. We were both tired but not tired enough to stop at the top. Instead, we continued on and began the long descent through the ski resort. Far down below we could see the main ski lodge and the road beyond. The trail was stony and Amanda was very frustrated as she carefully picked her steps down. The descent took about an hour but felt like ages.
Towards the bottom we could make out the lumbering shape of Amanda’s dad coming up the trail with 2, much quicker, four-legged forms. He made his trademark “Coo, coo, cooooo” call as he saw our headlamps descending towards the bottom. We gave him a hug when we got down and the dogs almost knocked us over in their excitement. Ray had evidently walked up to the top of the ridge around 6:30, while we were on our way up the other side but had come down ahead of us.
We descended through the village and eventually reached the Porter’s Beast of a 90’s F350 truck where they had beer waiting for us, which I excitedly popped open. We said hello to Sandy, sat and rested for a bit, apologizing for the lack of signal that had not permitted us to give them an update, then all got into the truck and headed down the east side of Stevens pass.
We slept in Leavenworth that night. Amanda had reserved 2 rooms for us. There wasn’t much open that late in town, but we did find a bar that was still serving food and got a booth. We enjoyed a deep fried meal that both Amanda and I really needed and recounted our time since White Pass to the Porters. Eventually, around 11 pm, Amanda and I could barely keep our eyes open and we all walked back to the hotel to pass out knowing we had some decisions to make the next morning.
