Week 11: Alpine Lake Wilderness, WA to PCT Northern Terminus, WA

Week 11 Mileage: 230.3

PCT Mileage: 2655.2

Canada!

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness was working me pretty good. By 8:30, I had done 9,200 feet of elevation gain and 33 miles. With a heavy pack, my legs were a little jelly-like and I was dreading a river crossing coming up. I had been thinking about this particular crossing since before I started this hike. It’s not your typical river. The map guide has it listed as a stream, but I knew this would be anything but that. With the snowpack lingering late, and the recent temperatures pushing triple digits, I knew this would be sketchy. The “stream” comes off the top of a mountain, down steep, almost like a weak angled waterfall and continues down eventually to a meadow where it becomes normal. Unfortunately, where the trail crosses, it’s abnormal. It’s also a rocky canyon. All the rocks in and around the river are sharp, angled, broken pieces of the canyon walls. Just as I expected, it was raging. Just before I crossed, I decided to put my phone in a Ziplock bag, and into a stuff sack. I wrapped my pack-top tight and cinched the strap down hard. I put my wrists through my trekking pole loops and unbuckled my chest strap (remember, I don’t have a waist belt). I took three steps into the foaming beast, got my foot hooked on a rock under the water and that threw my off balance just enough. The current took me down and I found myself swimming down this ravine. I tried not to panic. The water was cold as hell and as I kicked, I could feel my legs and knees hitting rocks underneath. I grabbed onto a boulder. After regaining my breath, pulled myself up and onto the other side. Completely soaked and shivering, I hiked another 1.5 miles and pitched my tent. I had enough for the day. Trail-1, Chezwick-0. Assessing the damage at camp, I had a good chunk taken out of my shin. It was hard to get it to stop bleeding. There was also a cut on my right shin, and I had banged my knees up a bit. I also soaked a pack of cigs and lost a half a bag of BBQ Twist Fritos. NOOOOO! That was the first time in over 20,000 trail miles I had been swept down a river, it was bound to happen.

The next day I pushed hard in the hot sun and pulled a 40-miler, passing Steven’s Pass around 3:30 and being thankful for the start of section K. The mosquitoes even seemed to calm down which helped my morale a bit. I wanted to make it into Stehekin by Monday morning and get the first shuttle into town. This would require two big 40-plus mile days and each one in the 8,000 feet of elevation gain world. I started seeing a lot of South-Bounders (SOBOS) who all thought I was finishing a section from a previous year. I was early, I am fast, but I have to be. After a 36-mile day, I followed that up with a 45.5-mile day.  The uphills were long 6-8 miles, and the trail was terribly overgrown in a lot of sections. It took me 15 minutes to cross Kennedy Creek suffering from a little PTSD from the other night. By Monday morning, I was walking the forest road to the shuttle pickup for Stehekin, 179.6 miles in 4 and a half days. A car stopped and a cute girl offered me a ride into town. Her name was Sage and she was a PCT thru-hiker from 2012. She let me shower at her place and even let me take her car to get my resupply box at the post office. Thank you!! Back on trail at 12:30, I was able to get beyond Rainy Pass and finish with a 36.5. Not bad with a 4-hour town stop. The next days, I pushed hard with a 42.4. I wanted to break 76 days on the PCT. Went to sleep just before Woody pass with 11.3 miles left to hike.

On the trail at 4:45, I wanted to touch this friggin’ monument. Four times on this trail now, and never getting to it. I met a section hiker named Jeff and we talked and hiked all the way to the end. At 8:43 am on July 17^th, I completed the Pacific Crest Trail! 75 days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes. A flat 35 mile per day average. That’s what I wanted and that’s what I got. Some blood, sweat and bullshit to get it, but there I was, tan, skinny, dirty and happy. After the typical monument photos and 15 minutes of hanging out, the celebration was over and now my focus was on getting to the CDT. As great as an accomplishment as that is, I still have 4,859.8 miles to go. Jeff offered to give me a ride to the train station the next day which made the logistics so much easier. Huge, in fact, because that would save to at least half a day of dealing with shuttles, busses and hitches. He would meet me at the hostel in Mazama the next day. The following morning, I arrived back at Harts Pass completing the 30 bonus miles back and was quickly told by a PCTA official and a forest ranger that the trail directly south was on fire. Highway 20 through Rainy Pass was closed, and no hikers were able to go into Stehekin. If I was a day and a half slower, these fires would have messed a lot of things up for me, but I crushed the PCT and all that was no longer my problem. After a shower and laundry, Jeff, who goes by the trail name “Mary Poppins”, picked me up in Mazama and at the end of week 11, I was heading to the CDT in an air-conditioned car, clean and with a full stomach. I am one lucky SOB!