Day 151

Mile 2451 to mile 2464 via Stevens Pass, 13 miles

Cost: Camped, free

I woke once through the night to the sound of something scurrying around my pack, scared it away, fell back asleep and slept like a baby… The past few nights (now it’s not freezing cold) I’ve slept the best I’ve ever slept out here. 

My plan for today was to hike into Stevens Pass (~11 miles), pick up my resupply box, eat food, charge my electronics, wash my shirt and underwear and update my blog – I think this is the last place I’ll have phone service until Canada. I wasn’t worried about hiking too far out of Stevens Pass, as long as I left there by 7pm I should be able to reach a campsite 2 miles out of Stevens Pass. Then I would really start that 108 mile section (to Stehekin)  tomorrow. 

I ate my breakfast of granola bars in my tent and took my time packing up. Because I’d camped next to quite a swampy area, my tent was wet with condensation so I thought the longer I delayed packing it up, the more chance it would have to dry 🙂

Zigzag walked past while I was still in my tent and told me it was time to get up, that Canada wasn’t coming to me, good point! 😉

I didn’t look at the elevation profile because it was only 11 miles, how bad could it be…?! Well there were definitely a couple more hills thrown in!

It was a beautiful trail passing autumn foliage with lovely mountain views. The trail was a mudslide in parts but all in all fairly easy going into Stevens Pass. I caught up to Zigzag and stopped to eat a snack with him overlooking a beautiful lake in the warm sunshine… He commented on my hat that I don’t really wear unless I have to and I told him I couldn’t find my sunglasses this morning, in fact I thought I had rolled them up in my wet tent and I only wanted to unroll it once, once I arrived at Stevens Pass – hopefully they wouldn’t be too crushed if they were in fact rolled up inside my tent!

 
(Above): My view as I ate breakfast inside my tent 
    
    
    
 The view looking down onto Stevens Pass  

   
(Above): notice saying that the trail is now open 🙂

I arrived at Stevens Pass around 1pm, hungry! I noticed a sign saying all the restaurants were open Fri – Sun and today was Thursday, oh no. I walked inside the building and was pointed to the shop that sold snacks. I looked at their energy bars and chips, not wanting either, when the lovely lady working there must’ve seen the look of disappointment on my face and told me if I could wait 20 minutes then I would probably be able to get a steak sandwich that the restaurant upstairs was making now 🙂 I could definitely wait! I picked up my resupply box and a couple of goodies from the hiker box (peanut butter and cheese sticks), then went outside, chose a table on the side of the building and went about pulling out my tent and sleeping bag to dry (I asked the lady inside if it was ok to do this and she said yes).

I then spread out my food bag and opened up my resupply box – I had about 11 dinners for a 5/6 day stretch because I haven’t been eating my dinners lately! I had already told Zigzag I would have extra food (he had to buy his resupply here), so I made a Zigzag pile of all my extras. 

I got to see Teflon as she had left Snoqualmie a day ahead of me and had been at Stevens Pass all morning. She stayed and we chatted a couple more hours while Zigzag, Dino DNA, Dingo, Wall-ee and Snow White also showed up. She would probably be about 10 or so miles ahead of me now so I might see her on this stretch or if not I would see her in Stehekin. 

I did some hand washing and dried my clothes on the tables in the sun, ate the Philly cheese steak sandwich followed by a lemon bar and washed down with a lemonade and coffee. There were heaps of charging outlets outside the building so I plugged my electronics in to charge then chatted with everyone and uploaded the last 4 days of blog posts. 

This was a really terrific stop. Lots of people hitch into Skykomish or the Dinsmores (trail Angels) to stay the night, but as of this year it’s an option to post your resupply to Stevens Pass with no charge to pick it up, but it can only be sent UPS or FedEx. The lady in the store was incredibly kind and welcoming and they really had everything a hiker needs – bathrooms, water, electricity, somewhere to spread out and sort through your resupply and food. Loved it, thanks!

I said goodbye to everyone as they slowly either started on their way down the trail or headed out to the highway to find a ride. I finally left about 7:10pm and hurried along the trail not wanting to be walking in the dark. I did have to put my headlamp on but only for about 10 minutes and to cross a stream before coming to the perfect campsite just 2 miles out of Stevens Pass (but far enough away to have lost phone service) 😦 Dingo and Cosmic Bubbles were there setting up their stuff to cowboy camp but pointed out a great spot for my tent. I set up, jumped in, ate a few snacks for dinner and started to think about the last almost 5 months on the PCT… It’s certainly been an adventure!