Tues. July 19     Miles today: 9.6        Total so far: 1,228.1

We had a bright, sunny morning, with only 9.6 miles to go for food and rest at Snoqualmie Pass!  We marched uphill and then through a pretty but very wet forest with lots of ponds.  Then the trail became more and more rocky and rough to the point where I can honestly say it was the WORST section of PCT I have seen.  It was either extremely rocky or unbelievably steep, rocky and rooty, with water literally running down the “trail”.  We tried to joke about “is this the trail, or did we get confused and wander off down a creekbed?”

It was slow going, and after a few hours of this, our feet, knees and ankles were pretty miserable, even with trek poles to help.  I tried to look at the great scenery, but mostly all I could do was focus on how to get through the next awful section.  We could hear the traffic roar on I-90, and what a relief to finally get to Snoqualmie Pass!  It turned out that half the place was closed because it’s ski-related.  We went to the Summit Lodge and asked for our box.  Out came the list, and…no box!  Yikes!  But first–food!  We ate and ate at the excellent Family Pancake House.  Great pancakes and coffee there!

We signed on for a room at Summit Lodge and began doing the usual resupply chores, plus lots of phoning to try to find our box.  Our daughter in Corvallis assured us that it had been mailed 10 days ago.  A call to the USPS proved totally useless other than to find out that the nearest actual post office was in North Bend, 20 miles away.  The USPS refused to give us the phone number the the PO in North Bend.  I refused to give up trying, and after consulting the local phone book,  I called City Hall in North Bend,  and they immediately got us the post office phone number.  At last, I was talking to a real person at the “real” post office, and she turned out to be a very friendly lady who soon enlightened me on what to do.

It seems that all mail to Snoqualmie Pass is handled by contract with one lady, who rents a CLOSET at the Chevron gas station convenience store.  That’s where PCT hikers with Gneral Delivery boxes are supposed to go, not to the Lodge, as we had believed.  But the hikers must be at the Chevron by 10:00 am, because that’s when the mail lady comes.   OK…..now we knew where to be tomorrow!

In the meantime, we rested, ate, and prayed like crazy for our box to come!  Before going to bed, we did watch one TV program about the America’s Cup yacht races, because a few years back, Bill was in a contest to design a special piece of equipment for one of the yachts.  His design didn’t win, but the yacht people did send him a cool “America Cup” Tshirt!  We fell asleep praying, “Please, Lord, take care of our box”.  Seems like we do a lot of those “Please, Lord…..” prayers lately.  One of the great things about hiking the PCT is that we really do have to depend on Him a lot.  That is a good thing!