Recalling my Pacific Crest Trail Hikes from August 2001 to September 2008

Pacific Crest Trail at the Southern Terminus--Campo, CA

Pacific Crest Trail Northern End--Monument 78--about 7 miles south of Manning, Canada

On Friday, May 29, 2020, I had meniscus surgery on my left knee.  This one was a result of getting hit by an Uber driver while walking downtown Seattle about seven months ago.

While recovering, I remembered the first meniscus surgery back in June 2001, I had on my injured left knee.  At the time, I said that I would hike the Pacific Crest Trail if I fully recovered—and I did between 2001 and 2008. 

The following 8 blog entries highlight those journeys.

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) spans 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada along with the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountain Ranges and was authorized by Congress in 1968 as one of the first scenic trails in the National Trails System although it was first explored in the 1930s.

The PCT passes through 7 National Parks, 5 National Monuments, 48 Federal Wilderness Areas, over 57 mountain passes, and goes past over 1,000 lakes and tarns. To learn more about the PCT I urge you to go to the www.pcta.org website (PCTA). If your hike is more than 500 miles, they issue permits so you do not need to get permits from the 100-plus individual agency units. However, this year, because of COVID-19 they are not issuing permits and telling hikers that thru-hiking is not allowed because of the danger of isolated communities to COVID-19 that thru-hikers may bring.  Instead, they support section and day hiking provided you carry what you need and do not visit those vulnerable communities.    

The PCTA reports that after the publishing of "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed the number of thru-hikers and those completing the thru-hike exploded.  For example, when I finished the PCT in 2008, only 103 people completed and the PCTA did not issue permits until 2013 in that year 1,800 thru-hike permits were issued, and by 2019 there were 919 reported completions with about 8,000 thru-hiker permits issued.  

I plan to post seven more blogs that document my PCT journey, but it will not begin with either end of the PCT.  Instead, I will post them as I experienced them year by year.

Section I, Washington State--August 2001

This first blog post is when I began my PCT journey. By August 2001, my knee had recovered so I started by having my daughter drop me off at White Pass PCT trailhead near Leech Lake just off of Highway 12, Washington. Here I am at the start of the trail with the heaviest pack I will ever carry on my PCT journey--about 40 lbs.  

For this Section I,  I traveled 99 miles in 6 days averaging 16 miles per day from White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass. I passed several soggy area lakes as well and enjoyed viewing Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt St. Helens for much of this section.  Switchbacks led me to rock-lined lakes, skirted Crystal Mountain ski area, and past miles and miles of clearcut filled with tasty blueberry bushes while traversing several passes with many switchbacks.

I started off quickly and passed by Deer and Sand Lakes before I met another hiker. I would only see another two groups of hikers and a group of horseback riders during the day.  I enjoyed the broad views of the valleys as I switchbacked all the way to Fish Lake when the late afternoon fog came in and obscured views of Mt Rainier.

I continued climbing at about 1,000 ft. higher until it became dark.  Here I would find my first stealth camping spot.  For Section and Thru-hikers—those that do the entire PCT in one season—stealth camping is when you stop at a suitable place along the trail that is usually flat for comfortable sleeping and has a water source.  You are expected to practice Leave No Trace when stealth camping. and definitely no campfires.

After eating dinner and cleaning up my growing number of blisters—now 3 blisters on my toes—, I went to bed at about 9 pm and woke in the morning at about 6am to a spectacular view of Mt. Rainier, and had a Balance Bar for breakfast.  I had covered 14.6 miles.

When I stopped at Anderson Lake for a snack and blister repairs, I discovered I had another three blisters that needed popping and taping.  I realized that I needed to figure out a better way to prevent blisters in my future section hikes of the PCT.  Another couple of hikers showed up and took my picture and warned me of a group of 50 or so Boy Scouts who were camping at Dewey Lake, about 2 miles away.  Good thing I stopped here for a break, even though I look zoned out.

I crossed the log-lined PCT bridge over Highway 410 at Chinook Pass, and when I got to Sourdough Pass—used by gold miners in the past—I met up with two hikers that had a string of 4 llamas to carry their packs.

Soon I came to a ridge that ran the length of the Crystal Mountain ski area at an elevation range of 6,000 to 6400 feet, and I was able to use my cell phone for a call home.  By late afternoon the wet fog and wind returned.  As darkness approached I decided I would stay at Basin Lake, about 1/2 mile below the PCT.  Instead of going all the way down, I quickly found a good stealth camp spot near a small creek.

On the 18th, I woke up to wind and fog. I began to skirt around Norse Peak when I was surprised by three elk.  After that while I was traversing a big scree slope, I heard some squeaking sounds and out of the fog, I came across 7 goats who were equally surprised and bounded out of sight.

After passing Martinson Gap the trail entered the ghost tree forest which had silver-grey snags that were still standing following a big forest fire.  From here the trail dropped down to the Government Meadows and Camp Urich where I spent the night. While coming into the Meadows, I spotted a herd of elk grazing.

This cabin is used year-round since there was dirt road access. In the winter, people come here by snowmobiles.  There were two groups of families, one using mountain bikes and the other using ATVs. After they left another hiker joined me for the night.  Sophia and her dog, Sierra, had started their PCT hike at the Bridge of the Gods, Columbia River carrying a 60 lb pack.  We shared our dinners of broccoli cream rice and parmesan pasta.

After dinner four guys—three loggers and a one-floor installer— showed up in their ATVs carrying a gun for bear hunting, a case of beer, pop, three bottles of booze, and a chain saw.  With the chain saw they started sawing down a nearby dead tree.  This was not the wilderness I had expected.  After chopping down the tree, they settled down, and fortunately, they were pretty well behaved.

On the 19th I woke up and the guys were cooking up some eggs and bacon and coffee which they shared with us.  What a treat.

I headed out before Sofia but then stopped shortly after leaving because I wanted to be sure that Sofia was safe from the motley crew who made us breakfast.  After patching up my painful blisters, she showed up and we continued traveling together until my last day at Lizard Lake near Snoqualmie Pass.

Just west of Green Pass, we came to this large andesite rock outcrop with large swatches of clear-cut that all hikers pose for pictures—including me.

As we hiked through the Blowout Mountain area with its miles of checkerboard clear-cuts.  We frequently stopped to taste the abundant and delicious blueberries.  Even Sophia’s dog, Sierra, would settle in the bushes to eat the blueberries.

As dark approached we stopped at a stealth camp spot for the night which was about 2 miles south of Tacoma Pass. Here Sophia is fixing her dinner which she shared with me.

On the 20th, when we were close to Tacoma Pass--about 70 miles from my start at White Pass-- we came to our first “Trail Magic”—it was granola bars, candy, water, and soda in a 5-gallon bucket.  A hiker named “Mountaindew” had left this for thru-hikers and Section-hikers.  To get that name, he must have guzzled a lot of Mountain Dew along the trail. 

Most hikers get nicknames during their hikes from others because of something they did or said.  Here are some examples:  Allgood, Snickers, Scout, Fallingwater, Ghosthiker, CookieMonster, Dirtybootdiva, Tamale, Cache22, Longstride, and Yoda.  Many of the names have to do with food or trail action.  

My trail name is “Hoov”—food-related.  I used this trail name when I hiked the Annapurna Circuit, Nepal with a group of RoomtoRead.org  donors.  At the dining tables, I would frequently ask the other 7 people if I could eat their leftovers, and John Wood would say I was just like a Hoover vacuum cleaner in the way I sucked up the food.  After that, they would call me “Hoov”.

After leaving Tacoma Pass, it was a long, painful hike because of my blisters.  We continued to travel through a lot of clear-cuts and were slowed by our foraging for huckleberries and blueberries.  

Since it was a dry year, many of the guidebooks advertised water sources were dried up.  We found ourselves getting water from springs as small as 1 foot in diameter.  

As we crossed a road for the weather station we found two bones that looked human.  I put them in my pack and planned to call the police when I got to Snoqualmie Pass.  

By 7pm we arrived at Lizard Pass near Stampede Pass—not a very scenic site with logging trucks running on the dirt road nearby and high tension wires running overhead.

On the 21st, we woke up at 6:30am to the sound of the logging trucks rolling by at the end of the lake.  

I headed to Snoqualmie Pass to end this section of my PCT hike adventure while Sophia and Sierra were planning to take it easy because her ride at Snoqualmie was on the morning of the 23rd.  She was one of several people I would join up and hike with for a few hours to a few days during my PCT adventures.  

This is the nature of solo hiking the PCT.  There is a frequent saying we have on the trail and that is “hike your own hike—HYOH”. On the journals you can find on the “postholer.com you will find many entries that describe this action, even sometimes a couple or a group of friends start off intending to stay together for the duration of the hike, and many do not stay together because of the nature of the HYOH phenomena.  

As I made my way down to Snoqualmie, I enjoyed the blueberries and the knowledge that I would soon be able to get off my sore feet.

When I got to the Pass, I called 911 and the Kittitas County Sheriff's deputies showed up, and when I showed them the two bones I found near Stampede Pass, they told me they were deer bones.  I was relieved, but I remember feeling kind of creepy carrying what I thought were human bones.

While I was waiting for my wife, I had dinner at the cafe with Paul, a thru-hiker who gave me advice on hiking lighter--I started with a 40 lb pack--and told me about an organization I might enjoy joining called “The American Long Distance Hiking Association-West—aldawest.org.  I joined and have enjoyed going to their annual meetings where hikers share their experiences, have workshops, vendor shows, and celebrate the Triple Crown recipients—those who have hiked the 3 big three:  Appalachian, Continental Divide, and the PCT.

Check out my 2002 PCT ill-fated adventure in the next blog entry. My plan is to have each blog entry represent each of the summers that I hiked sections of the PCT for a total of 8 entries which ended in 2008.

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