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Skykomish to Stehekin
Tuesday, September 12: Campsite below Grizzly Peak — 15.6 miles (2487.2)
We had planned to take a day off in town, but the weather was too nice to waste, so we packed up and headed back to the trail this morning. We saw Angela and Duffy, Ken and Marcia and Chris Dawes in town and met two section hikers, Jim and Stephanie. Angela and Duffy are jumping ahead in order to hike the last section before he goes back to medical school. He is already overdue. Chris is an Englishman we’ve been following for a long while. He’s very friendly.
The clouds are moving back in, but for now the sun is shining. We are surrounded by pretty ridges and meadows. The trail has been easy so far today. Washington has had some really good trail--wide and well graded—and some really bad trail—narrow, eroded, muddy and rocky. It’s a lot like the AT. Washington has had a lot of big climbs too. A good challenge, though not always a welcome one. Our packs feel very heavy. We’re carrying extra food in case the weather turns bad again. This stretch is one of the most strenuous, and it’s better to be able to take an extra day, if necessary, than to push in bad weather because we’re out of food.
The clouds dropped during the afternoon to about 6500’. That’s too bad as the nearby peaks were quite dramatic. We’re headed north toward Glacier Peak, which was covered with clouds today, but we saw several snow-covered peaks to the south and west. Best was the view of rocky Lichtenburg Mountain above sparkling Valhalla Lake. We may even have gotten a glimpse of Rainier, maybe. There are saw-toothed peaks, sharp and jagged all around. At the end of the day, we climbed Grizzly Peak, which has a lovely wide grassy ridge sprinkled with purple daisies. We camped in a nearby grassy meadow, below the peak. The clouds are pink and blue. The flies are pestiferous. It is cool, but not cold enough to keep them down.
Wednesday, September 13: Reflection Pond — 19.1 miles (2506.3)
We woke to the welcome sight of blue skies and sunshine. Snow-covered Glacier Peak was visible to the north, and quite beautiful. We could see peaks and ridges in all directions, including a good, though very distant, view of Mt. Rainier. We can’t photograph it, as it looks so insubstantial. It wouldn’t show. There are green flowery meadows and distant red ridges all over. We don’t see as many lakes up here in the Henry Jackson Wilderness. There are a few, mostly small and shallow, but not many. I have really enjoyed the hiking the past couple of days. Sunshine makes such a difference. Taking our time helps too. Since we can’t pick up our food drop in Stehekin until the post office opens on Monday, there is no reason to hurry to get there on Saturday. We’ll aim for a Sunday arrival, which means short days, late mornings and long lunches. When the weather is nice, that’s heaven. The views just keep getting better and better. The rich colors are beautiful. The contrast of red berry-covered ridges against the green valleys and snowy peaks is awesome. We stopped for the night by a tiny pond beneath Indian Peak. It has snow on the flanks, as well as green. The sun is setting on the jagged peaks behind us. It is quite windy, but sunny. We saw several backpackers, a group on horseback and one man with a shovel. I have no idea what he was doing out there, though he may have been a backcountry ranger whose campsite was well-hidden. My imagination gave other explanations.
Thursday, September 14: Fire Creek — 18.1 miles (2524.4)
The wind blustered and blew all night, preventing a sound sleep. When we woke, it was still blowing about 30 m.p.h. and made our climb up to White and Red Passes more difficult, though interesting. It wasn’t very cold, just windy. The views from Red Pass were terrific: glaciers everywhere, beautiful peaks above us, and a long glacial valley below. We saw three marmots running from a hawk, a hunter on horseback, looking for bears, two women backpackers and a couple of tents--all before lunch. We started with a 1000’ climb, all above treeline (up to about 6500’), then a long 3000’ descent into damp mossy mushroomy forest, followed after lunch by a climb back up to 6300’. It was cloudy this morning, but cleared up by noon. Yeah!
The afternoon climb was a disappointment because it was mostly in the trees, with few views of the glaciers above us until the end of the ascent. Then the views of Glacier Peak were beautiful. We crossed several streams on logs. Jim slipped on one wet one and jammed his foot between two logs. For a moment I thought he had broken it, but he was able to limp on. Another crossing was a knee-deep milky ford, fast and slippery. We decided to stop early. From here we climb another 1000’ to Fire Creek Pass, then drop down the other side. We had time to do it before dark, barely, but no real desire. So I washed up in the icy creek nearby (snowmelt!), started an early supper in the sun in a small meadow, and made pudding for dessert. Hemlock and juniper trees surround us. We can see a big cliff from our campsite, but not the one below Fire Creek Pass. We saw another falcon this afternoon, but no other wildlife or people.
Friday, September 15: Suiattle River — 18.5 miles (2542.9)
We lost the sun — drat! When we woke, the fog and clouds were back, veiling the mountaintops. We climbed up to Fire Creek Pass, over some snow, then began an interminable descent to rushing Milk Creek. I was glad to see a bridge there. Then we began a steep 2200’ climb up the other side. I saw 12 grey marmots, posing and whistling at us, in the grassy meadows and rocks. There were some views of the glaciers above, a red split mountain, and the long valley below. We spent a couple of hours (including lunch) above treeline, then began the many switchbacks down the far side of Vista Ridge. We were happy to see good bridges across Vista Creek and the Suiattle River — both were raging white torrents. (Glacial melt carries a lot of ground rock, hence the milky color.) Our campsite is a nice one, but noisy with the roar of the river. It does have an outhouse of a sort, a rare thing on the PCT, though we have seen a few in this area.
The biggest excitement today was a wasp nest in a hole in the middle of the trail. Two backpackers going the other way warned us about it. One had been stung six times. His wife was really freaked, and covered herself in her rainsuit even though she must have been broiling on the long climb. We were able to get past the wasps by running fast and jumping over the hole. The wasps swarmed out, but didn’t go far. When they returned to the hole, the next person could run and jump. It took about five minutes for them to calm down between hikers. We all made it safely past the nest, though, oddly, Jim was stung about a mile earlier by a lone bee. It certainly gave us something to think about besides the 53 switchbacks on the way down the ridge. The sun never did come out, so it was rather a gloomy day. The forest near the river is old growth forest, with huge mossy trees. It was damp and dark, but pretty. We only saw five backpackers today, including two who are camped about 50’ away from us. Given the amount of gear they have, they may have come in by horseback.
Saturday, September 16: Five Mile Camp at Pass Creek — 21.4 miles (2564.3)
We woke to another grey and gloomy day. Reluctantly, we packed up and climbed into the fog. Soon we were drenched from wet bushes and fog drip off the trees. It was a long but easy 3200’ climb to Suiattle Pass. The guidebook has a beautiful view of Glacier Peak as seen from the pass. All we saw was the usual great white sheet. Once we began to descend though, a strange thing happened — we left the cloud behind. It hung over the top of the ridge, sending tendrils across to the other side, but farther north we had blue skies and sunshine. We enjoyed the views as we circled around two large cirques. The colors were beautiful: yellow ferns, red huckleberries, green moss, and massive white and grey rocks. The walls of the canyon were high and sheer, quite beautiful.
After lunch we descended into the trees and followed the South Fork of Agnes Creek for several miles. Parts were quite dramatic with grey cliffs and tumbling waters. The sun stayed with us all afternoon, though occasionally we could look back and see the large white cloud still hovering over Suiattle Pass. The sunshine helped our mood a lot, though we were all quite ready to stop when we reached the campsites near Pass Creek. A very cold bath woke me up a little, but I’m ready for bed. We’re all ready to go to town, though Stehekin isn’t much of a town. Still it has showers, laundry and hot meals. We may end up camping since the hotel is likely to be expensive, as it’s the only one in town.
Sunday, September 17: Stehekin — 6.3 miles + 1.0 (2569.4)
We woke late and strolled down the rolling trail to the Stehekin trailhead. There’s a bus that goes from the trails to town twice a day. We were supposed to wait a couple of hours until the shuttle came by, so we settled down to brew coffee and relax until noon. A car came by about 11:00 and we asked them for a lift to town. Five of us (Ken and Marcia, Sly, Jim and I) jumped in the back of the truck for the eleven-mile ride to “town.” It was a pretty drive. The Stehekin River is clear, blue, and fast, with steep grey cliffs looming above, and looks a bit like Yosemite. Stehekin is a small resort at one end of Lake Chelan. The only access to it is by foot, boat or float-plane. There are a few houses, a lodge with a restaurant, a couple of small stores, a post office and a bakery that is very popular. About nine miles out of town there is another lodge with small cabins for rent. The locals have cars, but tourists travel by shuttle-bus. There is a free campground nearby, with tiny little tentsites. We’re sharing a site with Sly and Cheryl, who came in on the ferry. Things got a bit hectic, as we were trying to get laundry and showers done in time to get out to the bakery before it closed. We didn’t make it. We had to make reservations for dinner at the lodge. How absurd, but it’s the only restaurant in town. The other lodge nine miles outside of town offers dinner, but they were full up. I had hoped to stay over a day, maybe taking the ferry out on the lake, but there is a storm brewing, so we’re heading back to the trail.
The group we met in Big Bear, known as the Menacing Vegetables--Ben and Ezra, John and Maria—showed up this afternoon. They flip-flopped from Seiad Valley to Manning Park. They only hike about 15 miles a day and never really expected to finish the trail this year. The group decided that they would rather hike through Washington than Oregon, so jumped north to Manning Park and are heading south to Cascade Locks. One of the guys sounded interested in finishing the trail, even if it meant hiking through November, but the rest seemed pretty sure they would quit when they reached Oregon in October.
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