Mile 2599.8, Day 155

Day 141 – Day 145 White Pass to Snoqualamie (8/16– 8/20):

I hiked this section with the same group: Flamingo, Classic, Omelette, and Canvas. On our second day out of town we had lunch at Dewey Lake. It was an amazing swim in the middle of a hot, sweaty, and exposed day. We also crossed in and out of Rainier National Park and had some great views up on ridges. We had to cram ourselves into a small little tentsite up on a ridge, but we did it! One of the funniest quotes of the day was when Canvas said “we’re here for a long time, not necessarily a good time”.

The next day, while still pretty warm, was cloudy and drizzly, which I love!! We were hiking up on a ridgeline for most of the day, and had a lot of elevation gain. The day felt long and my body was tired, so many months of hiking was starting to take a toll. I also hadn’t had a rest day in a long time.

We took an alternate into Snoqualamie that was supposed to save a few miles and some elevation gain. On this alternate we found White Claws on the side of the bike path and got do-it-yourself trail magic from a local! He dropped off burger patties, bread, otter pops, and a grill to our campspot. There’s a campfire ban so we used our camp stoves to cook the burgers! I may be biased because of what went into cooking them, but they were possibly the best burgers I’ve had on trail 🙂 We arrived in Snoqualamie to news of a norovirus outbreak among hikers in and around Snoqualamie, so we tried to keep to ourselves in town. We picked up our resupply boxes, had a couple meals, and charged our electronics, all without interacting much with hikers outside of our group. Unfortunately it…… didn’t work.

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Day 145 – Day 149 Snoqualamie to Stevens Pass (8/20– 8/24)

Once our devices were all charged up we started to hike out of town with the goal of doing a few more miles to camp. I started to feel not-so-great when we were prepping to leave town, but thought it was just the Sunday scaries of getting back on trail with a heavy pack and massive climb ahead. It took my stubborn self TWO instances of puking on all fours off the side of the trail to accept that I maybe potentially have norovirus. At that point I had to keep hiking uphill to get to our campspot, because all of the rooms in Snoqualamie were booked from sick hikers. When I finally dragged myself into camp about an hour after everyone else in my group had arrived, I spent a miserable night puking from my tent.

Luckily I had one bar of cell service and an aunt and uncle that live in Washington. Aunt Sparky drove over 3 hours to come and rescue me the next morning. Two other people in my group also got sick by the morning, so we made the journey back down to Snoqualamie at a speedy 1mph with a few sick-stops.

I am so lucky that I had Aunt Sparky and Uncle Kris and a place to rest/recover at. I think norovirus (in retrospect) was a blessing in disguise because not having any breaks in Washington combined with massive elevation gain and losses was really starting to take a toll on my body. I was exhausted and my foot was in pain (it flairs up with overuse). I spent 3 nights in Winthrop, and 1 night in Leavenworth at an Airbnb with my group. Canvas and Omelette, the other two who had gotten sick and taken time off trail, also felt like skipping the section we got norovirus on. So we met up with Flamingo and Classic in Leavenworth, the two who hadn’t gotten sick and continued hiking. It turns out so many hikers got norovirus, and almost everyone I met from then on had gotten it in or near Snoqualamie, with varying levels of severity. Fat Bitch (yes, that’s really her trail name) told me “I wasn’t sure how I felt about finishing trail, but after getting noro, now I just really want it to be done”.

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Day 150 – Day 155 Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass (8/25– 8/30):

I got back on trail one day before the group I had been hiking with because I had to get to Rainy Pass on a specific day to meet my relatives and pick up my last resupply box. Holy cow, getting back on trail after norovirus was incredibly hard. I was physically much weaker and slower. This section had the most elevation gain and loss of all the sections of the PCT. Physically, I felt quite weak still from norovirus and had a very small appetite. Combined with having to hike 26 miles a day with 6000 elevation gain and 6000 elevation loss in order to get to Rainy Pass on the designated day, meant this was some of the toughest times for me on trail. Glacier Peak Wilderness also had the absolute worst blowdowns and bushwacking of the entire trail. Apparently mechanized equipment is not allowed in Glacier Peak Wilderness, so none of the blowdowns have been cleared or sawed through. It made the miles incredibly slow and physically exhausting as I had to figure out how to climb over, around, or under massive obstacles with a full pack on. On one blowdown I literally had to unclip my backpack and wiggle out of it because I got stuck. Luckily, this only lasted for 2.5 days of hiking and then it was clear normal hiking again.

I knew I was in an energy deficit from from my small appetite and the huge hiking days (I was probably burning 5000+ calories a day) and had to force myself to take small bites of food all day (too much at once would make me nauseous). This was also one of the longest sections of trail- I hiked 127 miles between food resupplies. I’m retrospect I feel a lot of pride in getting through this section while not feeling physically up to full-strength, but at the time it was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do, both mentally and physically.

One good thing that came of this section was I camped most nights with a guy named U-turn who also had norovirus so we commiserated over how weak we felt. Misery loves company! I cried the most I’ve ever cried in this section, but I did it. Somehow I got through the massive climbs and descents and made it into my tent every night by 9pm. I felt my strength start to build and my speed increase a bit. I reached the 100 mile SOBO marker, which means I officially had 100 miles left! U-turn and I were talking about post-trail life and what we were looking forward to, and U-turn got quote of the day when he said “after trail I want to go to a lake and just chill there. NOT HAVE TO KEEP HIKING AFTERWARDS!” We’ve all talked about how the need to hit mileage goals each day has really impacted the ‘fun’ parts of trail. Breaks, lakes, and great views are always overshadowed by the voice in the back of your head that reminds you how many more miles you still need to hike that day. I’ll reflect more on this in my post-trail blog post.

Stehekin has a bakery that is famous among thru hikers, especially for their cinnamon rolls. Unfortunately you have to take a shuttle in that only runs a handful of times a day, so I had to really push myself to get there in time for the 2pm shuttle, then I had to come back out on the 4pm shuttle because it was the last one running that day. It was worth it though- I ate a slice of pizza, quiche, and a cupcake to celebrate my 5 month trailiversary. They were sold out of fresh cinnamon rolls, but gave me a frozen one to pack out and eat on trail the next day. I hiked out that evening to an established backcountry campground and had a great evening with Bugs, Carrots, Guillermo, Yeti Legs, and Basecamp.

The next day I hiked to Rainy Pass and breathed a sigh of relief, all of my massive days and tears had gotten me there at exactly the right time. I got to see two sets of aunts and uncles! Aunt Sparky and Uncle Kris from Winthrop brought my last resupply box, and Aunt Kathy and Uncle Kevin from California were visiting Washington and the timing worked out perfectly to see me! They brought me food, laughs, and the morale boost I needed to head back out for the very last section of trail. It was one of the hardest goodbyes to leave them and keep hiking up the trail that afternoon. How I wanted to just stay in the car and go back to their house and sleep!! But I didn’t, because it was finally the home stretch of the PCT and time to go tag the terminus! I hiked 7 more miles that evening to Granite Pass and enjoyed a slice of homemade apple pie from Aunt Sparky!

My next blog will show an average day on the PCT, and then the blog after that will be about my very last section of trail, so stay tuned 😉