White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass

PCT MILES COMPLETE: 1592.2

PCT mile 2303 to PCT mile 2402
Section mileage: 99
Days: 9/11 - 9/15

We left Yakima mid afternoon, weighed down with packs full of groceries. I even had 3 lbs of donuts strapped to the top. We settled at an intersection at the edge of town with a little sign that read "hikers to White Pass", unsure whether many of the drivers would be familiar with the trail. Neither of us had high hopes, and we knew there was a possibility that we would get stuck another night in Yakima. Three minutes later, however, a pickup truck pulled up to us. The man said, "I can take you as far as the Y" and although we had no clue what the Y was, we jumped in. The driver regaled us with stories of his hitch hiking adventures, and dropped us off past Naches. We weren't on the road for thirty seconds longer when another truck pulled up. The woman was heading up the road to go rafting, and dropped us off ten miles from White Pass, where we waited for about twenty minutes. We were delirious, throwing pebbles at each other when a man from Australia pulled over for us. He drove us up to White Pass, and gave us beers.



WaterBug!

Back at the Kracker Barrel, we grabbed some corn dogs before the station shut down for the night. It was as if time hadn't passed at all. We ran into our friends Stomper and Birdbath, and more mystery thruhikers. The sun was waning as we set off into the forest, hiking a few miles before we collapsed from exhaustion.

We woke to a frosty tent. I caught up to Craig talking to a hiker in the morning; it was our old friend Water Bug from the desert! She was doing a flip flop hike, heading south to California. We have her a donut and wished her luck as she headed south to White Pass. We ate a lot of donuts today, as we hiked into and out of Rainier National Park. We feasted on blueberries too. I had thought that the berry season was nearing an end, but they were sweet and wrinkly having survived an early mountain frost. By the end of the day, our feet were sore and tendons swollen. A week off the trail left us weak.

We left camp by 7 the next morning. Days are getting shorter and it is increasingly hard to hike long miles. We ran into more familiar faces from the desert and heard news of friends we presumed had gotten off the trail. It was another long, painful day. We hiked over 30 miles and finished our donuts. At the end of the day, we passed a group of women who had been waiting for the last member of their group. "Have you heard anything yet?" I asked. Yes, they answered, and told us that they'd gotten a text from their friend. She had gotten turned around, off trail and sprained her ankle in the process. Luckily she had a SPOT device, and was med-evacuated by a helicopter. She texted just friends from home, telling them she was sitting on the couch drinking a mojito with her cat. I felt strangely jealous. Oh, to teleport home. Instead we hiked until dark and Craig built a little camp fire to warm up.

Chicken of the woods!

The next day, we were surprised to climb a hill and find a group of thruhikers sitting on the ground next to a little camper. "But... how did you get here?" I asked. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. The couple who owned the trailer pointed out a gravel road behind some bushes, and offered us a variety of canned goods. We happily ate baked beans and grapefruit out of cans. The other backpackers were pooling their wild mushrooms for a feast that night: corals, chanterelles, porcini. We hiked on, gazing out at jagged mountains to the north, that we'd undoubtedly be traveling through. We camped off trail in a grove of pine trees, setting my alarm for early the next morning.

We woke in the dark, packing quickly in anticipation of Snoqualmie Pass, fourteen miles to the north. We pushed hard, and arrived at the ski resort off interstate 90 before noon. A group of four young hikers were sitting at a picnic table surrounded by food. Leftover trail magic, they said, and pushed us to eat the fresh fruit and vegetables, muffins and Israeli couscous salad. We decided to go to the pancake house for second lunch. There was only one electrical outlet, however, so we couldn't charge our electronics. I also had an email from my parents, asking whether they should send a package to our next town stop, the Dinsmore's house in Skykomish. We were only three days away from Skykomish, so it was too late to send the package. We looked at the upcoming mileage, and decided to push past Skykomish to save time. Luckily the hiker boxes were full, so we were able to resupply.


Craig with a GIANT bolete