Welcome to Washington

(THIS ENTRY POSTED FROM MY MOBILE PHONE.)

After crossing the Bridge of the Gods, I made a great first impression on some local day-hikers by dropping a very long string of four letter words.  I had just been stung on the back of my leg by an unnecessarily angry wasp, and I was none too happy about the rude welcoming to the state.  I was stung again the following day on my other leg for no good reason, and I began to wonder what I had ever done to piss off the insect population of Washington.  Perhaps it was a preemptive strike on their part for what happened the day after that.  Cricket and I had caught up to Headbanger, and we were all looking for a place to sit down for lunch.  Unfortunately we were in an area overgrown with vegetation and devoid of good logs to sit on.  When we finally did come to a trail-side log that I thought would make a good bench, my Leave-No-Trace ethics broke down and I began to hack away at the surrounding brush with my trekking poles.  I just wanted to clear some space for our legs and it didn't look like the brush would have the slightest trouble regrowing.  This was a mistake.  As luck would have it, I was hacking away right above a hidden bees nest - and they did not approve.  Before I knew it I was hopping the "bee dance" while cursing, swatting, and running a few yards down-trail.  I ended up with three stings to the knee, one to the wrist, and one right beneath my shoulder.  We concluded that we were not welcome at that log and pressed on to another lunch spot.

Aside from a few bee attacks, and more than one ravaging encounter with mosquitoes, the first five days in WA treated me pretty well.  In the areas that required a lot of climbing, I was at least treated to spectacular views of Mt. Adams.  Mt. Ranier may be the largest peak in Washington, but the PCT doesn't get closer than 12 miles from its base.  However, the trail wraps around the behemoth of Mt. Adams just several days out from Cascade Locks.  It was awesome.  When the trail dove away from the mountain and into a brushy "green tunnel", it also flattened out so that it was easy to push big miles.  However, the real highlight of this section was Goat Rocks.

I had heard that Goat Rocks was one of the most scenic and challenging sections of Washington - and I was not disappointed on either account.  To start with, I had perfect weather, brilliant sunlight, AND a light pack (it was my last day before White Pass, so I had eaten most of my food at that point).  When the scenery is amazing and the trail in good condition, I'll take steep climbs over flat trail any day.  As the trail climbed from our campsite, the views just kept getting better and better.  The wild flowers were in full bloom at ground level.  Further on the horizon, we were surrounded by snow-clad peaks.  It was truly awe-inspiring.
After a few hours of hiking, we came to a juncture where we could chose between the "hiker" route or the "stock" route.  It was clear from our maps that the hiker route just shot straight up an extra 1,000 feet only to drop straight back down again - a classic P.U.D. (Pointless Up and Down).  Being hikers and not horses, we chose this route anyway.  When we finally reached the end of what was probably the steepest series of switchbacks I've encountered on the trail (I can't compare against the Sierras since all the switchbacks were buried in snow last I "cut" them), we stopped for lunch atop a rocky pinnacle. 

While we were doing lunch, we got cell reception and a call from Headbanger's dad saying that he was already at White Pass.  Not only did he have a room with bunk beds - real beds! - to sleep in, but he was also cooking steak and potatoes for all the hikers passing through.  It would mean another 18 miles, but we decided that this was too good of an offer to turn up.  So we proceeded to haul ass down a knife's edge ridge covered in loose shale.  It was exhilarating to practically run down the spine of Goat Rocks surrounded by nothing but open sky and sunshine!  It also brought back a lot of good memories of trail running in the Wasatch Mountains from last summer; a subtle reminder of things I gave up to do this trail.

It was a long and exhausting day, but Cricket, Headbanger, and I made it to White Pass just after dark.  Instead of camping at a swampy and mosquito infested lake, we got showers, beds, and tons of freshly cooked food.  The next morning we made our resupply runs at the "Kracker Barrel" general store.  The ladies running the place were awesome and very kind to thru-hikers (I hope that the staff from Echo Lake Resort and the Old Station general store/Hat Creek Resort make it up here at some point so that they can learn a few manners!).  My resupply box didn't arrive on time, but the store agreed to forward it ahead to Stevens Pass for me as soon as it came in.  Fortunately the store was surprisingly well stocked for hiker needs.  Headbanger and Cricket headed out a few hours before me, so I left for the next leg of the journey with Liz, Meow Meow, and Funyan.