Week 5: White Pass to Snoqualmie

August 2

We did 22 miles from Whites Pass. The terrain was fairly flat (flat as an adjective, I've learned, means two different things in Oregon and in Washington). We met a lot of hikers out for the weekend as Whites Pass to Chinook Pass in Mt Ranier National Park is a very popular backpacking spot.

A mile or two out of Whites Pass, I started noticing smoke in the air. I was honestly a little concerned as I had no idea where it was coming from or how close it was to us. The visibility wasn't horrible, but the smoke was definitely noticeable. We ended up talking to some hikers who said it was smoke from fires up in British Columbia and should clear out when the winds change this weekend. Thankfully, nowhere close to the trail but it did ruin some of our photos of Mt Ranier.

We had lunch by a river and saw a cute little marmot. Because of all the lakes around, it's starting to get buggy again. Thankfully, we aren't in the horde of mosquitos that was Oregon, but these flies in Washington are pretty persistent and annoying. Like the word "flat", "buggy" also has two different meanings depending on the state you are in.

Dipping everything in Nutella - always a good idea.

We also brought a small jar of Nutella with us on this part - inspired by my caloric freak out last week. Happy to report, I'm literally eating Snickers bars dipped into Nutella and haven't seen an extra pound (yet). Strangely enough, the Nutella has also cured us of our sweets craving and now all we can think about is savory food.

Today we also finalized plans with my dad to meet him in Snoqualmie. I'm really excited for this, and just getting the plans locked in helped my mood immensely. 78 miles is so close!

August 3

Happy birthday to Vinny/Radio! Although we had planned to do 26 miles today to celebrate, the elevation was not agreeing with us and we cranked out 20 miles.

It's been extremely hot lately, and very humid. Feels like the smoke is trapping in all of the hot air, and I've been sweating out of pores I didn't even know I had before 7am. Not super fun.

Thankfully, we haven't had any of the rain this state is known for, but the smoke hasn't been great for the views. Vinny scrambled up a peak near Sourdough Pass and while his in-person view of Mt Ranier only 10 miles from the mountain was epic, in photos it looks like a ghost of a mountain.

I don't remember exactly when, but recently one of the baffles in Radio's sleeping pad came undone, giving him a lump in the inflatable pad. However, it's getting worse by the day and now the bump is the size of a large baby. I used the satellite phone to text my dad to try and figure out a solution. Later, I found out Snoqualmie is only an hour from Seattle and they have an REI there so I'm really looking forward to swapping out some gear!

August 4

After our really hard and discouraging 20 mile day yesterday, we were surprised to crush 15 miles by noon, and we just kept going. We had a nice lunch by an icy cold spring, and had a hot afternoon accompanied by a long dry stretch, but we made 28 miles in total!

August 5

Today we had planned for an easy 20 miles to a campsite at Mirror Lake, which had great reviews from other hikers.

However, these 20 miles were anything but easy. The steep, hot climb up to the lake had me cursing this state (yet again).

We were greeted by a waterfall coming off the lake as we started the final climb, and we settled into our campsites right as our phones died. This is the first time this has happened to us with the external batteries, but it's also our longest stretch between towns and we didn't charge in Trout Lake and didn't do much charging in Whites Pass.

However, this was not a big deal as we only had about 8 miles to Snoqualmie, and didn't need our GPS app to tell us about water sources as we looked through the day the night before. Vinny also talked to some weekend backpackers and managed to borrow a bit of charge from their battery pack which lasted us to town, so it wasn't a total black out. We just didn't have our precious podcast to distract ourselves before falling asleep.

The campsite was busy with a lot of people out for their weekend backpacking trip, families and dogs playing in the lake; but we fell asleep quickly anticipating an early morning the next day.

August 6

We woke up and rolled out of camp before many of the other campers were even rustling awake. We thought it would be a pretty popular trail to Snoqualmie as it is only 8 miles from the town, but we were wrong. The trail was rocky, and appeared to be an afterthought connecting to the highway pass.

Soon we were walking down under a ski lift pass and down into Snoqualmie, another one-road town. We were a little bit earlier than the time I told my dad, but we settled into the pancake house and ordered I-90 Specials - bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns and pancakes. So so so delicious.

After we ordered, we heard the door swing open and a young hiker (Orange Crush) we had met a few days ago stumbled in, looking a little bit dazed. We invited him to come sit down with us and we were surprised to see him - we had met a day or two ago and showed him how to pick huckleberries - but he had been crushing over 30 miles a day so when he sprinted past us that day, we thought we would never see him again.

It turned out that Orange Crush had hiked out 4 miles that morning, called his parents, and turned around. He was ready to go home and get ready for school to start, so we ate some breakfast with him and offered our help.

My dad then arrived and it was great to see him! He instantly took OC under his wing and offered him to spend the night in his room and drive him to the airport the next day in Seattle. It was really nice to be able to help a fellow hiker, especially one who had hiked so many hard miles. OC had been walking since Campo, and instead of skipping the Sierras like every other northbounder we had met, decided to maintain a continuous foot path from Mexico to Canada and therefore had to road walk the Sierras over a three week period.

After breakfast we settled into the Snoqualmie Inn and picked up our packages, showered and did laundry. There was a brewery across the street called Dru's Bru which had a cool, urban feel to it, and we enjoyed some beers, followed by a milkshake and nap before dinner.

We also picked up our resupply boxes and had a great surprise care package from the Hoffman's! Thanks so much Doug and Elaine, we loved the goodies.

We went to dinner at Commonwealth across the street, where I had a salad(!) with grilled peaches and burratta, followed by a meatball sub with amazing fries.

It's been so nice to have my dad in town and hear all about the section of the PCT in Oregon he had just hiked - which was one of my favorites as well!

August 7

Today we got a ride with my dad into Seattle to take care of a few errands. We paid homage to the flagship REI, where Radio picked up his new sleeping bag and I got a new shirt.

After REI we went to the Apple Store because Radio's phone stopped receiving or sending texts, and we got the issue fixed surprisingly fast. Next stop was conveyor belt sushi and ice cream - thanks dad!

Sleepless in Seattle: Bring a thru-hiker to a big city, all we want to do is eat and sleep!

We drove around to a few parks in Seattle and got a good feel for the city. However, all tired thru hikers want to do is eat and then sleep so we went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap after dropping Crush off at the airport.

I look crazy here, BUT LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT SLICE!

We got dinner with dad at the brewery. They don't make their own food so we had to order delivery from the pizza shop (located in the mini grocery store across the street). This pizza was delicious and had slices as big as my head. The beer at Dru Brus was awesome as well. We had an awesome time hanging out with dad!

We also got the z-packs from him (our new super fancy, super ultralight tent) and practiced setting it up in the back lot. We did a final resupply run and packed up our bags, and said goodbye to dad in the morning. This was my favorite zero day yet!

Clean hiker, new shirt, back on the trail!