10/4/2024
Section: Milepost 2569.5 to 2588
Total Trail Miles: 2636.5 Miles
Distance: 16.9 Miles
Moving Time: 08:00 Hrs
Elevation Gain: 2164 Feet
Had some more traffic along the trail this morning in the early hours. I forgot that we are about 5 miles from High Bridge where you can catch a shuttle into Stehekin, so any PCTrs behind us which, evidently there were a few, were racing to get there before the 8 am pick-up. The French couple were up and out long before us. I had forgotten this flavor of the trail - the go, go, go attitude where hikers walk until they drop, hours after dark, only to wake and get going long before the sun comes up. We had had our fair share of that last year and I was glad to be taking it a little slower on this segment. We woke up just after sunrise and got out of the tent, moving a little slowly. We were lower today and so it was a little warmer but the puffy pants were still very much appreciated. I put on some socks, which I had gotten a little too close to the fire yesterday and managed to burn a hole through, before moving to the firepit to organize my things. An Australian guy came through and I talked to him for a while before he dashed off to catch the shuttle.
Amanda and I got a brown blaze in at the camp toilet before regrouping at our packs, doing our warm-ups and heading off down the sandy trail. The stage today doddles along Agnes Creek, dropping slowly, before a steep descent to the confluence with the Stehekin river at Agnes Gorge. Here the trail intersects with an old forest service road - The Stehekin Valley Road - and crosses the river to arrive at the High Bridge Ranger station. From the station, the trail climbs the rest of the day, in undulating fashion. Along the way, it passes Howard Lake and follows the Stehekin river until just before mile 10, when it turns off into the Bridge Creek Drainage. Around Mile 12, the trail crosses Bridge Creek at North Fork Camp and continues to climb the long, gentle sloping valley of Bridge Creek, occasionally gaining and dropping elevation to avoid cliff bands. The day ends at Hideaway Camp along the creek.
We hiked through the early hours of the day, the sounds of Agnes creek below us. Occasionally, we would ascend to a nice, granite bench above the creek and get a view down into it but otherwise we were in the trees. It was quiet, all the PCTrs behind us that were going to catch us today likely had, in order to make it to the shuttle. At around noon we reached High Bridge and turned on to the Stehekin Valley Road in order to cross what was, indeed, a high bridge. A beautiful river raged below, cut out of the stone in epic relief. The rain started to fall just as we arrived at the Ranger Station. We briefly stopped at a picnic bench and ate, but sitting in the rain sucks so we didn’t stay too long. We contemplated picking up the phone that is stationed at the ranger station to call a ride into Stehekin up for us - it was only 50 dollars - but we ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it. One of the biggest regrets from 2023 was not making it to the Stehekin Bakery for a cinnamon roll. That being said, we had been to the bakery on a backpacking trip in 2014 so it’s not like we had never been, it just wasn’t logged as a PCT trail experience.
From the ranger station we began to hike up the Stehekin River valley. From here, it is pretty much a constant, mellow climb up to Highway 20 from today through tomorrow. We caught more epic views of the river at various outcroppings along the way. We ran into a few groups of retirees that were obviously on a day hike out of Stehekin and said hello to all of them. As is often the case with retiree groups, the weather came up as the rain was constantly falling. Based on their report, we can expect rain into tomorrow which didn’t do anything to brighten our spirits. We continued on and the retiree’s eventually dropped off.
Eventually, we reached Bridge Creek Camp, which is a very nice campground just before the confluence with Bridge Creek along the Stehekin River. Because this camp can be serviced by car from Stehekin it is very well kept and features some large group campsites along the river. It is also the demarcation point beyond which you need permits to stay within the North Cascades National Park. We hiked through Bridge Creek Camp which was totally deserted, and turned off into the Bridge Creek drainage.
An hour beyond the turnoff into the Bridge Creek drainage we reached North Fork Camp. This was the last element that I was unsure about along this section. The old bridge was, supposedly, out and being worked on by the forest service. Evidently, while they were working on it, the temporary suspension bridge had also been taken down, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me but the NCNP website had been very vague about what was available to make the crossing. Dave, whom we had talked to at Milk Creek, had also been vague about the situation here. The ramifications of not being able to cross were pretty severe. We would have to hike back to HIgh Bridge, go into Stehekin and hike north from the north side of Lake Chelan to get through to Highway 20. The good news was, as we were walking, I kept glimpsing down at Bridge Creek and it looked fordable but we weren’t going to know for sure until we reached the North Fork Camp. Fortunately, the uncertainty was answered immediately upon arrival. The suspension bridge was still very much intact and we quickly crossed it to the other side before stopping for a break.
We sat for a while at the North Fork Camp, the rain came and went and some cheeky chipmunks pestered us for food. I broke down and gave one a peanut. It was clear that the forest service had been working here a while and these little guys had probably gotten more than just peanuts in the last week. Eventually, the rain started to pick-up and we decided to move on. Again, sitting in the rain just sucks all around.
We left North Fork Camp behind, climbing up from the crossing. Far off we caught the occasional silhouette of another hiker and steadily made ground on her for about 45 minutes before passing. She was French and not super talkative. We passed the turn-off for Six Mile camp and considered turning off. Technically, I had gotten a permit to stay at North Fork this evening but we crossed ahead of schedule and decided to keep going. I doubted, in this weather, that we would be fighting anyone for tent spots.
As the light started to fade in the late afternoon I looked around and got a feeling of familiarity. I turned to Amanda as we passed the turnoff for South Fork Camp. “I think we’ve been out here babe,” I said to her. “Really?” she said back. “Yea. Hideaway camp. We came out here in like 2014 or ‘15, got in, and realized we didn’t want to sit at the bottom of a river valley for the weekend and came right back out the next day.” “Oh yea!” she said, remembering “It gets darker in the mountains quicker” referencing the quote our friend, Maddy, had imparted on us shortly before the trip, talking about how light fades quicker if you are deep in the mountains. We both tried the quote out on each other again, which was strangely appropriate given it was late afternoon and we were, indeed, losing light fast.
We arrived at Hideaway camp in the late afternoon. Another PCT hiker was sitting on a log near the site we had actually slept at in 2014. We said hi and he asked if we had passed a girl on our way up the trail. We indicated that we had and that she was not far behind us. We proceeded further into the campground and found another nice spot where Amanda pitched the tent and I got everything else figured out. The camp had a bear locker which was nice for, if nothing else, keeping our stuff dry. As we finished setting up the tent, the rain started up in earnest and Amanda and I took the opportunity to set up the little vestibule canopies over the top. The stove gave me one last good boil which enabled us to have a final hot dinner. After we had eaten, I found a break in the rain to run the food to the bear locker. A little Durston tent was now set-up under the canopy of some small trees and the couple had already retreated out of the rain into it.
Amanda and I chilled in the tent, listening to the steady pitter-patter of rain outside before turning to our kindles and, eventually, falling asleep. This rain would have really sucked if we weren’t coming out tomorrow but, as it was, it was only a minor inconvenience.
