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.