PCT - Rainy pass to Stevens pass - Day 1 of 7

PCT - Rainy pass to Stevens pass

Saturday August 12th - Friday August 19th 2017

After weeks of debate on whether to do this hike or not, it came to be.

I planned to hike north bound with all the other PCT hikers but that plan was changed days before since the logistics of melody picking me up at the north end of rainy pass was a challenge because there is nothing at that location other than a trail-head. A Stevens pass exit was easier since, if melody or I had to wait, there is at least a restaurant to hang out at, as well as cell reception and wifi. This complicated my Stehekin visit though since I was going to use that location as a respite near the journeys end. A visit at the beginning would possibly interfere with getting km traveled early on, so I decided not to go.

On these at adventures I'm always rearing to go so of course I wanted to leave Friday after work so I could get on the trail asap. Denied. Crack of dawn Saturday? Denied.

Day One

Saturday 6am alarm goes off. We Leave our home @ 7:15 me with Melody and kids :)

Crossing the boarder was a short wait and only a one question boarder guard. Where are you going? "I'm going to hike the Pacific Crest Trail for a week, my wife is driving back to Canada today"

It was hard not to speed. We had to stop in the town of Marblemount at the ranger station to obtain an overnight camping pass. Then off to the Mondo restaurant where we all had breakfast again not the Asian food they have there though that I was contemplating for lunch. I ate all mine and everyone's leftovers to ensure I had enough city food to last me late into the day. We arrived at the rainy pass trailhead at 12:30 and had the hardest of goodbyes. I hate leaving my loved family xo

I can't believe this is happening. I start the trail with an unfathomable amount of km in front of me (200) that i must travel to make it out the other side. Luckily this first day is 95% flat or downhill. The first 30km is a national park and big brother is watching the trail. Within 15 minutes of travel I'm stopped by a ranger and he asks me to produce my campsite pass which he removes from its ziplock and looks over with great detail. He asks me a bunch of questions about my trip and small talk. I just want to hike. Ten minutes later I'm free. Not really, every hour or so there is a camera attached to a tree observing everyone passing on trail.

I pass a hiker every half hour or so sometimes a few words in passing, where are you from, where are you going?

This trail is awesome, nice and wide and smooth, and engineer graded so never steep when loosing or gaining altitude. When Hiking in BC I rarely see this quality of a trail. The pct is designed to allow for horse travel which you could easily. Horses do travel the trail and you can see the evidence occasionally. Also seen were grouse several times, and lots of blueberries! Which the bears have been enjoying.

Four hours of travel and I arrived at my camp. I could have traveled farther but i wanted to obey the rules and stay at my picked campsite plus I did travel the amount of km that I planned for the first day. The rangers put me in the group campsite area as they want all the pct people together. I ended being the only one there for the night. Although I did wander over to the main camp area and chatted with a nice couple from Salt Lake City who were on their way to Stehekin with their puppy in tow. The couple said they drive past the Young Living lavender fields all the time :) since I had an easy first day downhill hiking and I ended early, I had lots of thinking time which took my brain to plan an effective way to visit Stehekin! and the much talked about bakery. The First bus to Stehekin leaves at 9:15am and is 8km away.