Wed. July 20      Miles today: 11.3       Total so far: 1,239.4          Begin Washington Section J

I got up early and did some writing before breakfast at the Pancake House, which in my opinion has the BEST coffee I have ever tried, and then helped Bill with his writing.  At 9:45, I was at the Chevron waiting to see if our box was there…the cheery mail-lady arrived…and hurray, there it was under the table in her post office closet!  Whew, and thankyou to the Lord!  I ran back to the Summit Inn with the box, because time was running out–we had to be out of our room by 11:00.  As fast as I could, I sorted and packed the food and supplies that were in the box, and the motel maid was already knocking at the door before I finished.  She had begun her cleaning work as I stuffed the last items into our packs.

Before hitting the trail, we went to the store for one last ice cream.  We are learning now–when in town, do everything you can to reduce your calorie deficit, and that way you have a lot more energy for the trail!  And what a wonderful trail it was!  Remembering how awful the trail was getting INTO Snoqualmie, I’d expected more of the same going OUT.  But no–the “out” trail was smooth, wide and well cared for.  About a mile or so up, we began to notice FRESH trail improvements, and then voila–a whole volunteer trail crew eating lunch.  They were nearly all old retired folks like us.  We had to dodge around a big hole they had dug to remove a large rock.  We thanked them VERY fervently for what they were doing!

The trail took us up and up into the Commonwealth Valley–not a commonwealth of different nations, but of different MOUNTAINS.  The valley is ringed with very distinctive peaks, from gray, pointed, ziggurat-ish Mt. Guye, to colorful Red Mountain.  An older Sobo we met was very helpful.  He told us which creek up ahead was good to get water at, and also his experiences on the PCT alternate route. He was right about the creek–excellent water there!

As the trail climbed higher, we could see Interstate 90 far below in Snoqualmie Pass, and near the top of our 2,400 feet of elevation gain, we had awesome views of the mountains ahead.  Our pace was really slow, however–Bill’s foot really hurt from plantar fasciitis, AND we were carrying over 7 days worth of food, which made our packs really heavy.  But finally,  there was the top–a narrow gap with a “whole different world” on the other side.  Beautiful!  But the trail down was scary for me, with a BIG dropoff on one side–but only one side, so it wasn’t as bad as Goat Rocks. 

Finally we reached the first of the Alpine Lakes for which this wilderness is named, and needless to say, we met a lot of dayhikers on this clear, warm afternoon.  We were so high now (5,500 feet) that we could see Mt. Rainier sort of floating on the horizon, above beautiful wildflower meadows.  The mountain valleys here are huge and deep.  We reached more lakes, each in its own mountain setting, and by 5:30, the trail had brought us to a pretty saddle where we ate supper-with-a-view.  This is one of my favorite things about being on the PCT–being able to sit down and rest and eat, with a fantastic view of mountains or lakes or whatever!

Climbing on, we reached almost 6,000 feet at Needle Sight Gap, where we set up camp on the grass below the Gap, with a beautiful evening view of Mt. Rainier, to pretty to block by setting up our tarp.  Wild goat fur was lying in tufts here and there; I picked some up to look at it, and found it was very soft.  Marmots were all around us, discussing us (I think!) in loud, squeaky voices.  We looked at our bulging food bags.  There was not a tree in sight where we could hang them out of marmot reach, so we tucked the bags right next to our sleeping bags.  Then we spent a bit of time wrassling with the camera–it’s been saying “battery depleted” when the batteries are new.  We keep nursing it along–there are TONS of photo-ops up here!  The scenery we’ve had today is amongst the best we’ve had so far on the PCT, and we are very grateful to the Lord for helping us get this far!

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!