We are now a few days off the trail (Oct. 2nd was officially our last day - ironically, the same day we completed the Appalachian Trail 3 years ago), the ending being a bit different than we'd anticipated, but quite the ending indeed. To make it short: we got snowed out!
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| Here's a taste of what that looked like |
But first, let me backtrack a bit...
Our first 6 days of hiking in Washington were HOT and SUNNY and we were thinking, "Oh man, will it ever cool down?" Oh man did it ever. Slowly but surely, storms rolled in, we experienced warm, misty rain at first and then it started eventually cooling down. Not always raining, but cooler. By the time we made it to Snoqualmie Pass, we were mostly walking through clouds & knew no matter what day we were planning to leave to head back to the trail, there was rain in the forecast & lots of it. Down in lower elevation, it was warm, but as we got higher & higher, it eventually turned to snow. And it got COLD. And we were soaked. Our first night of Snoqualmie was really a reality check, we realized how we weren't prepared for being both soaked & freezing cold. One by itself was fine, but not both. That night was rough, we could barely get our fingers to work but eventually we got our tent up, jumped inside, got into our dry clothes & hoped for a clear, sunny day the following day. And we got just that. It cleared up enough for us to dry everything out & although the weather appeared threatening all day, the sun popped out every so often & it only drizzled on us once. After this storm, the weather stayed threatening. We crossed our fingers every morning that it'd at least be dry no matter if the sun was out or not & we made it rest of the miles to Steven's Pass without any more precipitation & we arrived feeling super optimistic - only 192 miles remaining, or 10 hiking days! At this point, we felt like we could make it through anything...being so close, adrenaline alone seemed like it'd be enough to give us that extra push to make it through.
Shortly after we arrived at Steven's Pass, it started raining & some locals informed us that there was a very wet weather forecast for the next few days. Wet with the possibility of snow. When we pulled into town & arrived at The Dinsmore's - a lovely little place where they offer us a place to stay, a shower, laundry, a wood stove to warm ourselves, etc. - there was such a feeling of doom & gloom. Jerry Dinsmore looked us in the eye & said, "the window to complete the trail has closed - do not continue" as he showed us the 7-day forecast. We were shocked by his words more than the forecast, which showed 100% chance of precipitation with 1-3 inches of snow at 5,000 ft. of elevation & 3-5 inches of snow at 7,000 ft. The good news was the highest elevation we'd be hitting through the next stretch would be 6,500 ft. so we could expect to deal with somewhere under 5 inches of snow, give or take. It was Sept. 26th - each year, plenty of thru-hikers are standing right where we were standing & make it through just fine. Weather is weather - truly unpredictable & as long as you are as prepared as you can be with the information you are given, you are doing what you are supposed to do. We felt Mr. Dinsmore's words were a bit dramatic, harsh & undermining our ability to decide for ourselves what we were prepared to go through. And what we've already been through. We had to decide for ourselves.
I should mention that the Dinsmore's dealt with a difficult experience just last year when a thru-hiker spent 18 days out on the trail, unaccounted for before he walked into the next trail town, Stehekin. They had sent out a search party for him & obviously were very concerned for his safety & were hugely relieved when he was able to walk out himself. As Legend put it, "he made it out & that's a true testament to the spirit of a thru-hiker!" We put ourselves into positions knowing that we are the only ones who can get ourselves out. That is part of the experience. That is the life we choose.
Numerous thru-hikers had continued north on the trail ahead of us & we head also heard of a few people who'd decided to call it quits right there at the pass, for one reason or another. We'd been hiking around Pepper Flake, Shotput & Legend for the past few days & all of us felt the same way - we needed to see the trail for ourselves & attempt this & that it'd be best to do it together, as a group. But first, Unicroc & I needed to supplement our gear - we got umbrellas, a second pair of gloves & a few more pieces of clothing to keep dry because we knew we were about to get WET.
So we made a plan, geared up & headed onward into the rain on Friday afternoon, the 27th. By the time we made it to our destination for the day, Lake Janus, we'd crossed paths with 4 people (whom we really like!) who were turning back due to everything they own being completely soaked with no sign of the rain letting up anytime soon. We were still dry & optimistic & as we arrived at Lake Janus for the night, the rain actually stopped enough for us to put up our tent & cook dinner but it quickly started up again. Legend had left after us & he did not make it to Lake Janus that night but we were sure he'd catch up soon enough. He is a very independent, determined individual so it was not too much of a worry knowing he wasn't right with our group the entire time.
We awoke the next morning to rain & optimistically headed onward, our goal being 20 miles for the day. We didn't make it that far, though. We ran into almost every other hiker who had left ahead of us as they were turning around due to being soaked to the bone with everything they own being soaked as well. Some had gone far enough up the trail to give us a heads up about how much snow had accumulated & so far, it didn't sound so bad. All of us in our group had umbrellas, we were mostly dry & almost all of the people turning around said to us, "we understand that you need to go see it for yourself!" Of course they understood the heart of a thru-hiker because they had been in our shoes just the day before - still optimistic & hopeful & still mostly dry. There was now only one person we knew of by name who was still ahead of us: 1st Man. We decided to call our day at 15 miles in because that set us up at a campsite at low elevation: 4,300 ft. & we agreed we were going to spend the next day (Sunday) in our tents - zeroing on the trail. The forecast had guaranteed that Sunday was going to be 100% precipitation & there was hope that the following day would offer some better weather. This campsite was 24 miles in, which we'd be able to walk in entirety on a normal day, if we did indeed decide to turn around. This campsite was at almost exactly mile 2,500, which meant we only had 168 miles (8 1/2 hiking days) to go to finish the trail!!!
The next morning (Sunday) we were glad to see that Legend had caught up to us & he was already en route to his next campsite, miles up the trail, but he stopped & talked to us & he was optimistic as ever standing under his umbrella, staying dry. We told him our plan & he told us his. Then 1st Man walked up, heading back due to being soaked & he said he'd camped at 5,000 ft. of elevation & that he'd gotten 2 ft. of snow overnight! He also said that most snow that had fallen had the chance of melting because it was raining & the ground was warm. With this news, Legend continued on & we sat in our tents, unsure of what to do. With the hope of better weather tomorrow, we had a glorious day of relaxation; eating, reading, playing cards & occasionally yelling across to say "hey, what's up?" to Shotput & Pepper Flake's tents.
The next morning (Monday), we awoke to snow. At 4,300 ft. of elevation. At first, we just all laid there & kind of accepted that we were going to have to turn back. Any snow at 4,300 ft. of elevation means MORE SNOW at higher elevation. And then we realized that it didn't just snow overnight, it kept snowing. And then Shotput's tent collapsed. And then we all packed up & started walking south. We were going to need to cross over three 5,000 (or more) ft. passes before we'd get back to the road. It didn't take us long to realize that the snow was getting deeper & that it was taking us a very long time to make any progress. And it just kept snowing! We made it up over the first 5,000 ft. pass & back down to 4,200 ft. of elevation & decided it'd be our best bet to stop there for the night. We needed to be realistic & the later it got in the day, the colder it got. And we needed to camp as low as we possibly could to avoid as much snow as we possibly could.
The next morning (Tuesday), we awoke to more snow. More had accumulated overnight & more kept falling from the sky. We packed up our things, put on our wet, cold socks & shoes (which is probably our least favorite thing to do) & continued onward. The trail was becoming harder & harder to follow & it took us 2 hours to make it the first mile. We had awoken with hope of making it the 16.5 miles back to the road but quickly realized how unrealistic that was. Pepper Flake & Unicroc switched on & off breaking trail & trying to find it created a challenge at times. Shotput had never even stepped foot into snow this deep before! And on top of that, she was sick with a cough. I was trying to remain optimistic although I had fear every time we stopped that we'd lost track of the trail. Shotput had the Guthook App on her phone so we were able to ensure we were on the PCT a few times where we weren't so sure. Each time we came across something that showed us we were in fact on the PCT, we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. Our feet were wet & it was hard to keep the feeling in our toes. It was exhausting just to take each and every step. It was slippery. It was cold. And it didn't stop precipitating almost the entire time. We were post-holing up to our waists at times & yet were still walking on top of snow. The maximum depth we encountered was right around 5 ft. It was unbelievable. But eventually we made it into camp, back to Lake Janus - the lake we had stayed at our first night out - & the rain stopped enough to set up our tents. Unicroc had collected some dry pieces of wood from a rock cave we took a break in earlier & after much determination, got a fire going enough to warm his toes, which had been numb the entire day. The rest of us had jumped into our tents to change into dry clothes & weren't able to bring ourselves back out into the snow to enjoy the fire.
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| The trail |
We awoke on Wednesday, the 2nd of October, very hopeful that we'd e able to make it the remaining 9.5 miles back to the road & we did, with spirits higher than ever! We made it out, but we were exhausted & although we could feel our toes, they were numb in weird places. And Unicroc's ankle was bothering him very badly by this point, something which seems to only creep up in especially non-convenient times. We each decided that this would be the end of the trail for us...for now. We would accept the experience we'd been given & honestly after experiencing that much snow, I can't even picture how it'd be possible for that to ever go away. It felt so relentless & unforgiving & no matter where we turned, it just kept coming. We were so done.
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| Black bear tracks! Just some of the good we managed to find in this experience... |
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| We couldn't help but stop every so often just to admire the beauty all around us |
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| Unicroc hiding under his umbrella from the relentless rain as we were hiking out, on our last minutes on the trail |
Just to have made it out safe & sound was enough of an ending for us. Now all we were worried about was Legend. We were hopeful that the tracks we'd made would help easily lead him out & that he could use the holes we'd made to walk in. We received news later that night that Legend had made it out, too, although he had taken a different route. After attempting taking the very snowy PCT back (our tracks were almost entirely gone by this point), he took a random side trail that led him to lower elevation with less snow which happened to lead him to a dirt road that happened to lead him back to the highway. Whew, but he made it & we couldn't have been happier! And last we've heard from him, he's planning to find a route, probably on roads, that will allow him to walk the rest of the way to Canada. Good luck Legend!
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| Unicroc & "The" Legend |
We are so glad that we were able to go through this experience with Pepper Flake & Shotput, both of whom remained positive even when things weren't looking so positive. Together, we overcame the diciest situation any of us has ever been in & we are truly just so grateful to them for sticking with us & pushing through. It absolutely would not have been as smooth of an exit without you guys. Much love to you both!
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| Shotput & Pepper Flake |
So we didn't make it to Canada. But we refuse for that to undermine the amazing journey we've had along the way.
We have hopes to come back next August (when there's no chance of snow!!!!!) to complete the final 168 miles. And we're going to take our sweet time & truly soak it up. 17 miles a day would do. We'll see. If not then, another time.
For now, farewell PCT.
Love,
Scat Tracker & Unicroc
P.S. I will soon post an entry about our journey here & post tons more PCT pictures as well.
