Category : Pacific Crest Trail

The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,668 mile (4,294 km) trail running through the tallest mountain crests and volcanic peaks of California, Oregon, and Washington from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. I walked its entire length in 2013 and was back on trail for more casual fun in 2014 and 2015. In my opinion, it is a 16″ by 2,668 mile slice of heaven.

Mile 2626.8

More ridge walking. Mile 2626.8 of the PCT

Mile 2605

How the Pacific Crest trail looked in the morning. A team had gone the day before, so the trail was cut. No new snow was falling. Mile 2605

“Avalanches.” These snowballs, some as big as a large snowman bottom, littered all of section L of the PCT. Mile 2605.5

We went out on Thursday Oct 3rd, and this is what the PCT was like 5 miles in. Mile 2604.6 – Cutthroat Pass. 6840ft elevation with approx 16″ of snowfall.

Goodbye for now, Lighthouse

Scottish hiker Lighthouse got off trail today. He chose not to walk the road to Canada after trying to posthole it for hours yesterday. He’s happy with his hike and all the friends he has made. I was there his first couple days hiking and I was around his last. He has hiked 2000 miles. So it’s a hard goodbye.

Spooning

Our plan to stay warm on the way to Canada, with a four person Coleman tent (joking). El Jefe can be the big big big big spoon when he puts down the camera.

Puddle Play

This little girl is making so many of us PCT hikers look like wimps, just playing in the cold water.

Rainy Pass

Heading down off Rainy Pass this morning in Jeremy’s “Green Bean” (the name for his truck), several deer crossed in front of us. Incidentally Jeremy also had a deer in the back of his truck. Anyway, we were delighted that the weather looked so much better over town.

Hikers Krusteaz, Shedder, KPax, and Pimp Limp’s mom walk back from Stehekin Pastry instead of waiting for the bus. Besides, we’re professional walkers and… it’s not raining much! Shedder and I wore trash bags to keep our down dry. We looked like idiots.

Suiattle Soak

My adventurous birthday “novice backcountry” hike got a little hairy when someone took a dunk in the Suiattle River. This is sopping wet Cherub after her successful log crossing of that ferocious glacial river, on the old (disused due to a bridge washout) PCT. Happy birthday to me! Long story short, we couldn’t find the log crossing when we arrived at the River. Cherub decided to give a crossing a go. I wanted to let her do her thing, but also a nagging voice in my head made me hand her a stick with a length of Dyneema cord tied to it. She took a few steps in and quickly hit hip-depth. Cherub is not very tall. At that point she gave me an alarmed glance and abruptly slipped and fell all the way into the water. Luckily she had continue reading…

Grassy Peak

View northeast from mile 2531 of the Pacific Crest Trail, showing crystal clear glacial runoff, marbled rocks, and Grassy Peak in the distance.

Approaching Glacier Peak Wilderness…

Wet for Weeks on End

A fairly clear day for me, mile 2503.5. I slept at mile 2500 the night before, staying with three people who decided to quit the PCT due to snow. I watched seven people in all get off the trail that day, only to see it clear up the next. It gets really grating though, being wet for weeks on end.

This photo cracks me up — Cherub summons the snow. “Comon, Snow!” She’s about to get her second snow, ever (she’s from South Africa). Piper Pass mile 2461 of the PCT

View of I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass from mile 2397.8. Freeways are SO LOUD. How do the animals sleep?

Goat Rocks Rocks

The trail follows that ridge for quite a ways… treacherous, too. Mile 2285.3 in Goat Rocks Wilderness

Waldies in Snow

My poor, poor tired and aching dogs. Cooling them off near Old Snowy mountain, mile 2284.5 of the PCT. I hiked 11 miles in those sandals yesterday; didn’t know what else to do because my feet just needed a rest but I had to walk. The feets have gone on strike! These sandals have zero traction. But I dunno, when you grow up in Alaska you develop a relationship with all the types of snow and ice. This melting and grainy snow just wasn’t slippery at all. The cold felt so nice on my inflamed feet!

Mile 2286, in Goat Rocks Wilderness, 7050 feet up.

Pasqueflower

The amazing Goat Rocks Wilderness, mile 2280.6 Friday the 13th!

Saddle Up

Mile 2272 of the PCT