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Bafrazier - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2010

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Gadget Girl
City: Hood River
State: OR
Country: USA
Begins: Aug 7, 2010
Direction: Northbound

Daily Summary
Date: Fri, Aug 27th, 2010
Start: Campsite north of Swift Creek
End: Stevens Pass
Daily Distance: 13
Trip Distance: 222.4

Journal Stats
Entry Visits: 1,869
Journal Visits: 8,860
Guestbook Views: 898
Guestbook Entrys: 25

Pacific Crest Trail Map

(Click image for full size)


Gadget Girl on the last day

Stevens Pass

I woke up at 12:30am wondering why I was chilled in my sleeping bag. I turned on my headlamp and saw that the top of my sleeping bag was moist. I looked up and watched in astonishment as water dripped in where the tent pole hub pressed against the rain fly. Yes, it was raining pretty hard outside (it rained for 12 hours), but this was a new tent (Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2) and should not be leaking. I started looking around the rest of the tent and sure enough the two outhaul areas were also dripping water against the mesh and was splashing into the tent onto my sleeping bag. I put my bandanna up above to catch that drip and moved things around in the tent so my bag wouldn't get wetter but I was awake most of night trying to decide what to do with a very wet tent and now a wet sleeping bag. We still had one more night to go before Stevens Pass and to top of it all off, it was quite chilly. I checked the temperature and it was 40 degrees in the tent. When it was bright enough to call it morning, Jingle Bell and I reviewed the Atlas and saw that we could actually hike out to Stevens Pass today via Trail 1060 (Surprise Lake). Once we ate breakfast, packed up our wet tents and stuff, and headed down the trail, we were surprised to see snow on the hills/mountains above us. What a shocker! No wonder it was cold!

We made it to the cutoff of Trail 1060 and said goodbye to the Pacific Crest Trail. Then we spent about 3 hours going 4.5 miles navigating a pretty tough, steep, rocky, twisty, trail peppered with tree roots, boulders, and streams pouring down the trail. Surprise Lake was beautiful but at that point we were focused on finishing our three week trip and kept going. We agreed later that this last 4.5 miles was the hardest of all the miles we hiked. It made the Pacific Crest Trail look like a magic carpet! We met a nice man out for a day hike who offered to drive us all the way to Bothell if we couldn't get ahold of our friends before he finished his hike. It was great to have a backup plan in place. We arrived at the trailhead where the cars were parked but decided to continue out to the highway to see if we could find some cell phone service. Jingle Bell said she was going to flag down a police car and I said I was going to hike on down the road 1,500 feet to the Iron Goat Interpretive Center and see if I couldn't get cell service there. I met a couple of older guys who let me use their cell phone (different service) and was able to call my friends for pickup. I started hiking back to Jingle Bell and lo and behold, a state police car stopped in front of me and had Jingle Bell in the back seat! The police officer offered me a ride but I politely declined and hiked back to the Interpretive Center, where the officer dropped Jingle Bell off. Our friends from Bothell showed up about an hour and a half later to pick us up. My husband and son were making their way from Hood River and were stuck in traffic in Tacoma. We had quite the reunion when we arrived at their house and spent all evening catching up.

I am planning on adding photos to my journal entries when I get home and settled back in. I always find it tough for the first week sleeping inside and having to get back into the swing of things.

I want to thank all the trail angels and support crews that helped us with our three week adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail. That is truly trail magic!

Entry 25 of 25
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Mt Adams To Stevens Pass

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is a 2,650-mile national scenic trail that runs from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington. The PCT traverses 24 national forests, 37 wilderness areas and 7 national parks. The PCT passes through 6 out of 7 of North Americas ecozones. Learn more: www.pcta.org

 

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