Wed. July 27      Miles today: 21.5        Total so far: 1,386.7         Washington Section K

Quite a wind came up during the night last night and we had to get up and restake the tarp so it was lower to the ground.  But the great thing about the wind was–it dried everything out!  All our wet socks (hung on the “clothesline” under the tarp), our wet pant legs (left draped over our packs) and EVEN our shoes, which had been soaking wet from the Napeequa River crossing late in the day–all of them were perfectly dry.  Wow!  What made me really grateful was remembering that the last time we had a scary river crossing (the Whitewater River in southern California), the same thing had happened–a warm wind blew all night and dried all our wet stuff, so that in the morning, we could put on clean, dry clothes and shoes.  I said it at the Whitewater River, and I don’t mind saying it again, “Lord, thankyou!  You take such good care of us!”  And this time it was especially amazing, because we’d camped in a meadow area, which normally means DEW at night. 

Rested and happy with dry clothes and feet, we headed down the rest of the Little Giant Pass trail, which was steep (I added plenty of “trek pole holes” to the collection of holes on both sides of the trail!) but not rocky, except for one stretch where the whole hillside is one big crumbling rock, and yu have to watch for ducks so you know where to go.  Then it was several miles to reach the Chiwawa River, which was indeed (as we’d been told) wide, but only ankle deep, but….where did the trail go on the other side?   We looked and looked and could not figure it out, so Bill and I both crossed, but Bill headed for one “potential trail continuation” and I headed for the other one.  Mine turned out to be right, and once I was there,  I stood and said, “Duuuuh, why didn’t I notice this from the other side? “–it was a whole row of “river crossing poles” neatly laid out in a row on the “beach”.  So to help future PCT Nobo’s like us, I put up a decent-size rock duck to help show them (from the other side of the river) where to go.

Then came a 4 mile gravel road walk to our next trailhead.  Along the way, we heard a very labored truck noise from behind us–turned out it was a very large pickup towing a big horse trailer loaded full of animals.  When we got to the trailhead, there they were–one horse and several mules, being loaded with canvas bales full of stuff for the trail repair crew working on the PCT!  We fervently thanked the very modest wrangler (“Aw, it’s nuthin–Forest Service pays me to do this”) and his helpers who were loading mules.  So off we went on our next-to-last leg of the PCT detour, which began with easy going through shady forest.  I was troubled, though, by the large numbers of little trees that were dead, and similar big trees whose tops were dead, too.  I don’t know what caused the problem.

The trail began to climb and have great mountain views.  It was basically up, up all morning.  We stopped to cook lunch well off-trail in case the mules came by, but they were a no-show.  On we climbed, into the afternoon, and at around 3:00, we stopped for our snack break.  The trail was so steep and narrow that we were sitting IN the trail munching on our Snickers, when along came the mule train!  “Wait a second!” we told the wrangler.  “We’ll get out of your way!”  There was a little creek close  by, running across the trail, so we grabbed our packs and halfeaten candy and rockhopped up the creek till we were well offtrail.  The mule trail got in gear and went steadily by, though some mules tried to grab a drink from the creek.  Finally they disappeared up the trail and we sat down again to finish our snack.

The trail continued to climb higher, and began to circle the head of Buck Creek Valley.  Now we could look back and see the grand valley we’d been walking up for so long.  Gorgeous!  Then when we reached the top of the pass, we once again had glorious views of Glacier Peak, and a bit further on, we could see down into the valley where the PCT was waiting for us!  We were determined to reach it, so we went down as fast as we could, even though it was the end of the day and we were pretty tired. Down through the mountain hemlock and heather, then into the cedar and fir we went, till finally there it was–a sign “PCT Detour End”!!! Hooray!   What a relief!   Now to find a campsite ASAP–it was really getting late!

We were on flat valley floor at this point, but it was full of bushes and dead fallen trees. So on we went to Miner’s Creek, where there was a backpacker campsite.  We were all sweaty and hot from the warm day, so brave Bill took a bath in the roaring creek.  It looked way too scary for me, so I settled for a “sloosh” with water bottle and bandana.  My knees were really sore from so much uphill and downhill the last few days.  The detour trail is undeniably tough.  But the scenery was fantastic, so I would say it was worth it.  Boy, did we need a rest in Stehekin!   We determined to reach it tomorrow.

Tues. July 26    Miles today: 22       Total so far: 1,365.2             Washington Section K

We were up right at 5:00 am, knowing we had a killer day ahead with two multi-thousand foot climbs plus the very scary crossing of the Napeequa River.  We hiked in the early sunrise glow right past Pika, who was just getting up.  On we went for 3 miles of mostly downhill through pretty forest, to the White River footbridge, where we had breakfast with a great view of the White River Falls.  Once across (and believe me, I was VERY glad to cross on a BRIDGE–the White River was really something), we were on the White River Trail, a level path that went through groves of awesome, HUGE incense cedar trees, AND stretches of “green jungle” where we had to push our way through all sorts of bushes and plants overhanging the trail. 

After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the Boulder Pass Trail and our first big climb.  But aha!  It was obvious that the trail was being worked on, and soon we met the large Washington Trail Association crew–all ages from high school up.  The first of the crew we met was a teenage boy working on a big mudhole.  I trid to say “Thankyou!” to each and every one of them.  Trail gorillas are awesome! As we continued our climb, we found ourselves walking right through their “basecamp”–a big cooktent, with many other smaller personal tents around it, all near a rushing, pretty creek. 

After that, we were really getting up high on the side of the Boulder Creek Valley.  The trail was often overgrown and we were still pushing through plants, but the many butterflies were some compensation.  There were also lots of yellow ribbons along the way with instructions written on them for the WTA crew.  The long climb up the pass was full of beautiful views in every direction, but it was really hard on Bill, who was having a tough time.  We’d hoped to reach the top by noon, but didn’t make it, since Bill had to walk so slowly, and finally he said he just could not go on, and we had to stop, so I cooked dinner by the trail.  The rest and food helped Bill some, and we finally made it.  One benefit of hiking slowly for Bill’s sake was that I had a lot more time to take pictures–and there were a LOT of photo-ops!

Now we could see waaaay down into the Napeequa Valley below, with the nasty river ford waiting at the bottom.  The trail took forever to get down–countless long switchbacks (we found out later that these were designed for the comfort of city dudes riding horses for the first time!).  But things got livened up for a few thrilling seconds when a gray military fighter jet came roaring up the valley, flying just above treetop level BELOW us!  My first reaction was to cheer loudly, “Fly that baby!  Way to go!”  My second more sober thought was, “That’s a lot of my taxpayer dollars he’s risking by flying that way.”  But it sure did liven up those endless switchbacks! 

We’d been told that the Napequa Valley was very beautiful.  Well, it was OK, but I thought the valley on the other side of Boulder Pass was way prettier.  Maybe my opinion was somewhat colored by the fact that not only was it taking forever to get down into the valley, but a lot of that getting down process involved pushing through bushes, which is totally not fun.  Finally we reached the rushing, gray Napeequa River, at the worst possible time of day–late afternoon.  You could tell that it was running high, as a result of being basically a snowmelt river.  If we weren’t thru-hikers we would have camped right then and forded in the morning, but we had no time for that.  So we took off our packs, double-ziploked our camera and valuables, buried them deep in the packs, took a firm grip on our trek poles, prayed together, and walked into the rushing water side by side, with Bill on the upstream side, taking the full brunt of the current, and me in the “eddy” on his “lee” side.  It was very scary, and it was hip deep on me.  At the point where the current was strongest, we could barely stay on our feet, and my stout trek poles were vibrating furiously.  Praying with every cautious step (we could not see the bottom), we edged across, till we were safely on the other side.  Now that it was over, I couldn’t help it (that “girl thing” again)–I sat down and cried a little and hugged Bill and thanked him.  I know I couldn’t have made it across without him.  (Other hikers we talked to later told us that the current had succeeded in knocking them down, but they did manage to swim ashore safely).

Then we wrung out our soaking wet socks and drained our shoes.  Rocky, dangerous fords are best crossed with shoes on for safety, and our shoes had done a great job!  Now it was time to head up the Little Giant Pass Trail, which began as a very narrow path up through a meadow.  Sometimes the grass was very tall and the trail so faint that it was a bit hard to follow and yikes!  Grass pollen again–I had to whip out the allergy medicine to stave off a sneezing nose and itching eyes!  Then the serious climb began–very steep, and on a very narrow trail.  Both Bill and I lost our footing a couple of times and slid right offf the trail on the steep hillside.  It was a very hot afternoon, and there was hardly any shade, which made it pretty tough, but the views were great.  It took us till 7:15 pm to reach the top of Little Giant Pass.  We’d planned to camp there, but no luck–it turned out to be an almost-knife-edge ridge with no flat place at all.

So we told our tired feet to “hang in there” and headed down till we reached a small, flat, meadow area, where we two exhausted hikers were very glad to set up camp and go to bed in a warm night breeze.  We told the Lord how grateful we were for all His help and protection today, especially with the river crossing.  And we agreed that the scenery on this PCT alternate trail has been spectacular!