Week 6: Snoqualmie to Skykomish to Stehekin

August 8

We started the day with another breakfast at the pancake house and then hit the trail. Thankfully, the trail has gotten much prettier north of Snoqualmie and we enjoyed beautiful views over the catwalk despite the climb that it required.

We met up with a group of hikers - Mama Bear and her son Patchy, and Happy Camel, a woman from Norway during lunch. We had been bumping into them in towns since Timberline but had never hiked with them. Turns out, we were planning to camp at around the same area and had similar mileage days, so we decided to link up with them. It was nice to have people around again!

We ended up doing about 17 miles that day to a beautiful lake called Spectacle Lake, where we lay out on a nice flat rock by the lake and cowboy camped. This was the first night where the weather was nice, the bugs were gone, and we wanted to sleep without our tent.

August 9

Happy birthday Sarah!

This morning we woke up to a deer walking through our campsite to take a swim in the lake.

We tried to find another spur trail that connected the lake to the Pacific Crest Trail, but it ended up being a bush whacking adventure.

We had a five mile climb to lunch at a lake on top of a mountain, and ended up doing twenty four hard miles this day.

We also met up with another hiker who knew Mama Bear and Patchy. His name was Raingear and we had dinner with him that night. He had hilarious stories about his time on the Appalachian Trail.

August 10

Today was another day of climbing- 22 miles. We had lunch by an amazing lake (Deception Lake) with a rock perfect for jumping off of. We had the whole crew and Raingear with us and enjoyed a leisurely swim and two hour lunch.

August 11

We did 8 miles down to Steven's Pass today - finally reaching our next town!

It was funny that our final descent was into a ski lodge and we walked down "Crest Run", which was a blue route.

Nothing was open at the lodge even though we heard about an espresso bar, so we quickly moved on and hitched a ride to Skykomish.

We weren't able to grab a ride with the crew since there were so many of us (Raingear even put on his "hitching" tie which looked great with his cut off button down shirt). However, the next guy who picked us up ended up being super cool. Turns out, his company built the floors of a climbing gym that just opened in Los Angeles.

We got into Skykomish, and a car pulled up and told us to head to the Cascade Inn as the Dinsmore's were heading over there too.

The Dinsmores are a trail angel family that runs a hiker haven out of their home. They provide showers, laundry, and a place for hikers to chill out. We've heard so much about their generosity throughout the trail, and it was great to meet Jerry Dinsmore at the Inn when we were having breakfast.

Radio and I ordered giant, American style breakfasts with hash browns, eggs and sausage. I also got a buttermilk pancake on the side and it may have been the best pancake I've ever had.

After breakfast we headed back to the deli where we heard Mama Bear, Patchy, and the rest of the gang was at. We walked over to the post office and picked up our resupply and mailed back our microspikes.

Back at the deli, the rest of our gang decided they wanted to hang out at the Dinsmores and leave for the trail the next morning. Radio and I wanted to get back on trail and not waste another morning so we said goodbye when they left and then sorted out the rest of our resupply, had another delicious lunch at the Inn and charged our phones, went back to the deli to pick up a sandwich and final milkshake to go, and hitched back to Stevens Pass around 5 pm.

Anyone want to pick up some (hiker) trash? We ended up getting a ride from a man on the way to his cabin - his wife is currently section hiking the PCT. Thanks, "Spark" for the ride!

We ended up doing about 5 miles to a lovely lake where we set up camp and enjoyed our turkey sandwich. The lake was about 0.3 miles off trail, and as we were walking down I was complaining about how far we were walking, grumbling, "This lake better be worth it!" when a day hiker looked at us funny and asked if we'd been hiking long. I thought this was hilarious as under any other circumstance, you would be thrilled to be walking down to a beautiful lake at sunset. I guess being out here for over a month has shifted our perspectives!

August 12

We slept in today, which means alarms at 6 and hitting the trail at 7 - it felt really nice to have the extra hour of sleep especially as I haven't been sleeping great the past few days. Random aches and pains have been keeping me up, and my feet either throb or have this painful skin sensation. So I took a Benadryl and enjoyed 8 hours of deep sleep.

We did 24 miles today. It was really foggy but still beautiful in the morning, and it even drizzled for an hour or two in the middle of the day. We had lunch at Grizzly Peak and when we were descending we heard a whistle that sounded like a hawk. It repeated over and over again, so we stopped and tried to figure out what was going on. Suddenly we noticed half a dozen marmots standing on top of their dens, whistling at each other in this high pitched screech. We had never seen anything like this before so we stopped, got our phones out and started recording. That's when a woman came up from behind us on the trail and said that her dog who she hikes with, always frightens marmots and that is their warning call to each other. Either way, it was hilarious.

In the afternoon we climbed up to Sally Ann Lake where we made our camp. I'm feeling good, like I'm finally getting my Washington legs, and overall it was a really great day with Vinny.

Walking down to our campsite in the fog.

August 13

We woke up to rain this morning! Not wanting to get out of the tent, we made coffee and had a slow start, hitting the trail at 7am.

It rained all day except for a small time between 10-12, and unfortunately we didn't stop for lunch, thinking it would remain clear. It just started raining harder, and we had a miserable lunch in the rain fighting off yellow jackets and mosquitos. We weren't able to dry off anything from the night before either.

The spot we picked for lunch was a tentsite with supposed amazing views of Glacier Peak, but we just saw clouds. We did have a few great views today despite the rain, and the terrain changed so quickly it felt as if we were in three different countries - the Swiss alps, an Icelandic meadow, and a South American rainforest, all within our 21 mile day.

Broken bridge actually made for a pretty easy crossing over a raging river. Not pictured - although I do have photographic evidence - Radio getting cocky and taking a slip.

We set up a very damp camp and settled in next to a creek for the night.

August 14

Although it didn't rain tonight, we had a ton of condensation on the tent from the river. It was also extremely cold and damp - my backpack had frost on it!

Frozen backpack - wet from rain the day before, temperatures at our campsite dropped into the 30s.

Everything still wet from yesterday and freezing from last night, we slowly got dressed and started moving. It was cold!

We had a very slow start as we chased the rising sun over the ridges along the trail. Thankfully, although it was cold, it was fairly clear and once we found a sun patch we stopped to attempt to warm and dry ourselves for a few minutes. We continued on our climb making slow progress.

At the top of one of the mountains we were passing, we met an older man with all of his stuff drying out. It looked like a great campsite with amazing views, but "Just Glenn" told us a story of how he got hypothermia last night, and that the trail crews had rescued him, getting him dry and his tent set up and dinner started. We let him borrow our inReach to text his wife to let her know he was behind schedule, and chatted with him for over half an hour.

We continued on the trail for a couple hundred feet when the views became even more stunning. Inspired by Just Glenn's drying technique, and frustrated that we missed yesterday's drying window, we decided to call an early lunch and dry everything out.

Gorgeous views once the clouds cleared - and an old Cascade Crest trail marker.

However, not long after we set up it started getting cold again - but then I saw a familiar face come up over the trail - Mama Bear, with Patchy and Happy Camel not far behind. It was so nice to see our Washington trail family again, and it turned out we were planning on camping at the same spot again, so we rejoined them.

We only did 20 miles today, but the weather was tough and 15 miles were after lunch, so overall it wasn't too much of a wash. The afternoon cleared up for some amazing, breathtaking views before camp in this stunning meadow.

August 15

Today we planned for a big push to try and make it to Stehekin on the 9 am shuttle. The ranger station where we catch the shuttle was about 36 miles from us, so we pulled 27 miles today.

There was a lot of moderate climbing today, and we met another hiker who blew past us. We caught him at a water break and got to know him a bit - "Festivus" had planned his thru-hike around attending and volunteering at as many music festivals as possible. We caught him pulling 30 mile days trying to catch the Equinox in Oregon before heading to Burning Man. He was a really cool guy, and we ended up running into him again not far from lunch, and hiked with him for a bit. When we got to lunch, it turned out that he had been hiking with Momma Bear and Patchy in California! It was a great reunion and we all planned on catching the 9am shuttle together.

We ended up at camp fairly early for doing 27 miles together, and tucked into bed early for our 4am wake up call. It was nice eating with everyone even though we had a tight camping spot, and thoughts of the famous bakery in Stehekin kept our mouths watering.

Overall, this section of Washington has had incredible views - and we did over 50,000 feet of vertical change this section. It's been challenging and rewarding so far, and it's hard to believe we are less than 100 miles from Canada already!