Several years ago I spent two summers in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, working at a camp and falling in love with the wilderness there. The mountains, the forests, the rivers, and lakes - it all reminded me so much of the landscape back home in New England, but everything was on a larger scale. Mountains towered into the clouds, alpine lakes sat serenely below the peaks, waterfalls cascaded next to the trails, and, most surprisingly, the sky was clear for weeks on end.
With those memories fresh in my mind, I anticipated my first steps out of Oregon and into Washington on the Pacific Crest Trail. I had come almost 2,200 miles in just over four months, friends had come and gone, plans had been altered, and now I was about to cross the last major dividing line. It was hard not to notice one important parallel between the last state of the PCT and that of the Appalachian Trail: both garner a great deal of respect from the thru-hiking community. I had already seen some of the parallels in my previous trips to Washington - the rugged beauty, the pine forests, and plentiful water. Like everyone else, I was filled with a mix of excitement and fear.
Something unexpected happened as I waited in Cascade Locks, however. "It's looking like an early fall this year," the locals said, referring to the constant drizzle that saturated the town. A few days earlier there had been intermittent rain, but it didn't worry me much. The summer had been bone dry, so a few light showers mattered little to me. But on my second day off in Cascade Locks, with the forecast showing a week of wet and cloudy weather, I started to wonder. According to the locals, September was usually a very dry month, just like those two summers I'd spent in the Cascades. I hoped this would be a passing system.
I waited in town for three days in order to let some old friends catch up, which paid off pretty well. Most of the hikers left at different times, but I stuck with one, trail named Tangent, for the rest of the state. After so much time spent alone on the trail in the past month, I didn't want to have the end of such a journey be a solitary experience. As far as I was concerned, the joy of the end of the trail was best shared with friends. Little did I know that friends would also be key to finishing the trail at all.
As I set foot on the Bridge of the Gods, Tangent right behind me, the first omen from Washington hit me, almost literally. With no sidewalk along the narrow bridge, hikers have a hair-raising walk between Oregon and Washington, but there is usually little traffic. I started across, the only automotive activity an RV heading into Oregon. I walked toward it, close to the edge of the roadway, as I normally would walking along a road with narrow shoulders. I expected the RV to move over a little in order to avoid smearing me into the railing or knocking me off the hundred foot high bridge. Instead I relearned a lesson on assumptions. I squeezed into the edge of the railing at the last second, and the side mirror of the RV whipped by less than a foot from my face.
At this point I should have been a little shaken, but my optimism still shone through. I happily strolled the rest of the way into Washington, while Tangent voiced his opinion that maybe there was something wrong with my head since I hadn't made a mess in my pants moments earlier.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- A Wet Start
- Interlude
- Walking In A Cloud
- Familiar Faces
- False Sense of Security
- A Race for the Border
- An Abrupt Ending
- Final Gear Analysis
- Shelter
- Sleep System
- Rain Gear
- Trekking Poles
- Food Storage
- Final Gear List
- The End
# WORDS: 6470
# PHOTOS: 19
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Discussion
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Thanks so much for writing about your PCT adventures here on BPL. You are an excellent writer – I was hooked from the first installment. Carol
These articles were truly excellent. Among the best I've read on bpl.
The weather in Washington seemed pretty close to what you can get in Sweden sometimes. Very few people use tarp tents here. Considering your experiences would you you choose a different tent, say a 500 g heavier double-wall one, if you were to choose again ?
Would the added comfort be worth the weight difference?
Ryan, I hope you come back to Washington (maybe in August) so you can see it!
I agree with Miner – of all the sections on the PCT I loved – and there were many – I'd put Washington stretch from say from Stevens Pass north up with the very best sections of trail. Heck the Goat Rocks are great as well. But the stretch from Stevens Pass is some of the most beautiful on the trail, with sweeping mountain vistas and deep glacier-cut valleys. It's a shame it was so rainy last year – I really didn't get to go out and enjoy it much because most of the Cascades were socked in the clouds.
But that's the great thing about the northern stretches of the PCT – it doesn't actually follow the Pacific Crest in the truest sense…It begins to jog east, which keeps it considerably drier than if you were hiking in a beeline towards Mt. Baker, for instance.
Terrific series. I really enjoyed your writing style. Please come back and do Washington during a good summer, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised by how nice it can be.
Dirk
Good question, Gustav. I haven't used a double-wall tent in a really long time, so I doubt I would have gone with one for Washington. My other shelter is a rectangular tarp, which is really nice for camping in the rain, since I can sit around and cook in the shelter, and stay very dry. There wasn't always enough room for that sort of thing though. I guess it comes down to whatever you're most comfortable with.
Mary and Dirk– I do really want to come back to Washington sometime. I spent a month in Packwood and a month in Concrete several years ago, with much better weather, so I know how nice it can be. I'll be back, I hope!
> Reading accounts about other people's thru-hikes generally leaves
> me with the sense that all NOBO PCT thru-hikes are alike.
> [earlier comment by Brian Lewis]
Brian's probably right: there are fundamentals that are the same in each thru-hike — challenge, freedom, magic, all that good stuff. But reading these awesome articles made me appreciate how *different* each hike is! I can finally understand why any fool would want to do a thru-hike more than once. (Not saying I'm convinced yet, but at least I'm starting to get it…)
Tangent and I had some parts easier, some parts harder — the Sierras were *totally* different in '97 (yikes, way better our year)… but so was Washington! Trail magic has changed so much in the last 13 years. The people you meet are… well, they're all over the spectrum, and just leave it at that. No two alike.
Love the way you cut through the "hyperbole". Let the magic show through just the straight facts. No need to *tell* us it was amazing; you couldn't hide it if you tried!
(And thanks, Guthook, for making me feel welcome on the trail despite just being out for the last half of Washington!)
Thanks for the thru hike report- I think this tells the experience quite well! Loved sharing in the adventure, hardship and perseverance.
Great diary of the trip Ryan. Interesting reading. Brings back many memories of a trek I did in '07. Cold and wet, it sounds too familiar. On your food storage topic, like you I have had a Ursack food bag that failed to mice. I have switched to a wire mesh rodent proof Grubpack. Have used it now since 2009 without problems. The mice are more consistently intrusive and damaging than any other animal I run in to. Best of luck to you.
"Mary and Dirk– I do really want to come back to Washington sometime. I spent a month in Packwood and a month in Concrete several years ago, with much better weather, so I know how nice it can be. I'll be back, I hope!"
It'll be worth returning to! I've only been living in Washington for a few years, but I'm already hooked. You had the misfortune of reaching Washington as El Nino was setting in, leading to the worse than usual weather that you experienced. Usually the views of Mount Rainier don't vanish until later in the year, but my first here here it was several weeks before I got to see The Mountain!
Great series of articles.
Welcome to the wet corner of the continent! This Spring has been exceptionally wet and cold. Your experiences on the PCT match much of my lifetime spent on the wet side of the Cascades. The condensation and soggy down is what I deal with any time I hike.
When it is clear and warm, the views are incredible, but you still have the morning dew and wet brush to deal with. Last week at Barclay Lake, at the base of Mount Baring (there is a 6100' peak in the clouds):
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