PCT – Days 74 to 79 – White Pass to Stevens Pass

Date:  July 18 – July 23 (5.5 days)

Start:  White Pass

Finish:  Stevens Pass

Distance:  174 miles (280 km)

Daily Average:  31.6 miles (50.9 km)

Total Distance:  2476 miles (3983.9 km)

HIGHLIGHTS:

Coffee in bed: A day out of White Pass I had the pleasure of camping with Buck Mulligan, Mama Moab, Captain Underpants and their indefatigable dog, Utah. A contagiously gregarious family, they are spending their summer section hiking the PCT. We stayed up chatting until 11 pm and the conversation included an eclectic range of topics from Harry Potter to Tolstoy to the ins and outs of hiking on the Colorado Plateau. The following morning I was woken up by Mama Moab, who greeted me with a freshly brewed cup of steaming hot coffee. A cup of joe in bed whilst taking in sunrise views of the mighty Mt. Rainier…..does it get any better?

Wildlife: Lots of elk and mule deer, as well as a couple of black bear.

LOWLIGHTS:

Rainy Days and Monday’s: Between Snoqualamie and Stevens Pass, a spectacular section from what I recall from my 2007 hike, rain, fog and snow were my constant companions. I vaguely recall that I used to enjoy snowy stretches whilst hiking. However, after walking/wading/swimming through a seemingly endless sea of the stuff over the past 1600 miles, the novelty has well and truly worn off for this coastal kid from sunny Queensland, Australia!

NOTES & MUSINGS

Five Favourite Tunes with “Rain” in the title:

– November Rain (Guns & Roses)
– Purple Rain (Prince)
– Rainy Days and Mondays (The Carpenters)
– Hard Rain is gonna Fall ( Bob Dylan)
– Have you Ever Seen the Rain? (CCR)

When the rain eventually ceases, the sun makes its welcome return:

Five Favourite Tunes with “Sun” in the title:

– Ain’t no Sunshine (Bill Withers)
– Here comes the Sun (The Beatles)
– California Sun (The Ramones)
– Blister in the Sun (Violent Femmes)
– House of the Rising Sun (The Animals)