PCT Day 138, Mile 2216 to 2226

Day 138

Mile 2216 to 2226, 10 miles

Cost: Stayed in a room above the Trout Lake Grocery, $12.50 pp

There was a light rain sprinkling on the tent when I woke up so I packed up quickly to put the tent away before it got too wet. The rain soon stopped but it was a cooler morning than the last few days.

KC and I had been talking about the weather forecast we saw yesterday and trying to figure out a plan… We didn’t want to be in the Goat Rocks Wilderness on the Knife’s edge in a storm… We would check the forecast again today when we got phone coverage (we knew we should get it approx 2 miles before getting to forest road 23, about 8 miles into the day), and then we would make a decision. As we saw it, we had two choices:

1. Hitch the 13 miles into Trout Lake to buy an extra day’s food, hitch back to the trail, take the road detour and hopefully make it to the horse camp to spend the night (horse camp’s usually have a restroom which we could use a shelter if the rain was really bad) then take a trail zero there tomorrow (Saturday) and sit out the bad weather.

2. Hitch into Trout Lake and stay there for 2 nights before getting back onto the trail to start the road detour on Sunday morning, hopefully after the storm has passed.

We found the spot where we could get phone service and checked the weather forecast. Now it was saying snow and freeze-thaw conditions! (Today is Friday so tomorrow we would be on the knife’s edge in not so ideal conditions!)

Bushtit and Tomtit caught up to us while we were stopped on the trail looking at the forecast and we shared the news with them. They were going to be picked up at the forest road by Bushtit’s cousin and said that if we were there at the same time that we would be able to get a lift into Trout Lake… It sounded like things were falling into place. While we still had phone service I called the Trout Lake grocery store and asked about the rooms they had available for PCT hikers (found this in Yogi’s guide). They had 2 rooms available and it was only $25 for the night including a shower and laundry, what a bargain! I asked them to hold the room and KC and I sped up to catch up with the Tits.

We caught up to them and all got to the road at the same time. This is where the trail is now closed for about 24 miles (as of the 24th August) because of the fires burning on Mt Adams and there’s a road detour in place.

Bushtit’s cousin arrived soon after we did and the four of us smelly hikers piled into her car. She dropped us off at the Trout Lake grocery store, thank you! We bought some snacks to eat while showering and doing laundry and settled into our room. The shower is a bathtub so KC used her stove pot and I used my cup from my jetboil to shower with, it was hot water and we got clean, perfect!

Once we were clean we walked 2 minutes up the road to the cafe at the petrol station and ordered a wood fired pizza for dinner. It was delicious.