Day 174&175 Miles 2453-2477

Day 174 

Start: 2453.3 End: 2467.3 Total: 14

We had a lazy morning at Glacier Lake but unfortunately it couldn’t be toooo lazy because we still had 14 miles to go! Before we left the lake, I used a wooden vault toilet that is in the middle of the woods, with no door or anything just a trail leading up to it. I was glad I had my bag and could set that on the trail otherwise there’d be no way for someone to know that it was occupied until they turned the corner and saw you on the toilet. Wooden toilets like this would be common throughout Washington. Some in better shape than others. 

There were some shorter but still quite steep climbs to kick off the day. We actually did the steepest climb on the pct but I didn’t learn about that until later. Chris and I had cruised up it going as fast as we could. It felt good to get the heart rate up and push ourselves a bit. 

10 miles in for the day we took a meager lunch break at a lake and went for a swim and ate what little remained of our rations. Chris realized he left his go pro at the last lake and debated going back for it. He decided he would finish the hike with us then maybe go back for it after getting more food. He had his first day of a new job the following morning so it would be a tight one as the closest way to get there would be 7 miles one way (not along the pct). 

After lunch we cruised up the last climb of this section, passing some chair lifts at the top of Steven’s pass resort. We rushed down excited to get some real food! Chris and Claire had stashed their newly purchased van at the bottom so we were able to hop right in that and take it to Leavensworth, a famous dutch touristy town. 

We went to a restaurant and had a victory beer and food. Chris and Claire dropped us off at the grocery store and we said our goodbyes. They told us they’d pick us up when we got to Canada so we’d be seeing them in a couple weeks!

My friend Krista from Utah happened to also be in the area. Krista has already done the triple crown (AT/PCT/CDT) plus another 10,000 “random” trail miles across the globe. She is a badass hiker and averages high 40 mile days for “fun”. She recently just did the Tahoe rim trail, twice in one go, averaging 60 miles/ day. Pretty sure she has the fastest known time (FKT) for that, simply because no one else had ever thought to do it twice! I got a text from her at Steven’s pass and I told her where we were and she said she could be there in two hours! Her fiancé (Eric) was attempting to do the FKT of Washington so she was his support crew. We got a couple things at Safeway but it was quite expensive and Krista said she could take us to Walmart the next day so we decided we’d do the rest of our resupply there. 

Krista took us to the KOA where we showered and did laundry then we went and camped somewhere together a bit outside of town. It was so nice to see and spend some time with Krista again!

*the go pro saga*

As a side note, this is the second go pro that Chris has lost. He just got this one, brand new. He has a freediving buisness so he uses this go pro to create a lot of content and capture a lot of videos from under the sea. The go pro is very precious to him (and it had the only pics of the fish he caught with his bare hands). After we parted ways with Chris and Claire at 5/6 pm, Chris’s plan was to drive with Claire 2 hours down to Snoqualamie Pass where their other car was, get that then drive 2 hours back to where we had just got off , Steven’s Pass, Then he would hike 7 miles through the night, get his go pro, hike 7 miles back and then drive an hour to work and begin his first day at 7am. A crazy plan but that’s Chris for you. After putting a bit more thought into it during the first drive, he decided to just go home and get a good nights rest. He then executed that same plan after his first day of work. He hiked back to glacier lake and his go pro was gone. He hiked back and made it back to his house around 4/5 am the next morning. He posted in a bunch of random Facebook groups though and randomally a woman reached out to him and said she had his go pro, but took it back to her house, in Sandy, Utah. Someone we went to college with had just moved to Salt Lake City so Chris was able to message him and he went and picked it up from this woman and then mailed it back to Chris. (All this took place in the weeks after he discovered it was not there anymore).

Day 175 

Start: 2467.3 End: 2476.9 Total: 10

In the morning Krista took us to Walmart then we made some scrambled eggs in the parking lot before she took us back to Steven’s Pass. Someone was helping Eric pace and had to bail so Krista had to go retrieve him. Eric started at the Canadian border and had done two 70+ miles days so far. He would be at Steven’s Pass that night so we would likely see him. For reference it would take Mantis and I 11 days to get to the Canadian border😅.

We hung out there in the lobby , charging our things and doing some chores. A bit before we left we saw some hiker friends, payload, Hilldoggo, guppy, biscuit roll in. We hung with them for a bit before we hiked out around 3pm. 

Right before we got back on the trail someone called to us and ran up, giving us each a bag of candy popcorn. He made sure to tell us not to eat it yet but let it get cold. Our packs were full to the capacity with food. We hadn’t packed enough food the last time so we were sure to overdo it this time. 

We had one climb but overall it was nice and chill as we made our way back up into the mountains.

We filled water for the night right before we would take a small side trail to a lake to sleep for the night. I really wanted to see Eric but we wouldn’t if we went to our camp spot. After filling up water I decided I would at least make him a little sign to cheer him on!

We then turned the corner and right before our side trail Eric came striding up the incline! We chatted for a couple minutes but didn’t want to impede him too much, he still had 10 miles to go to the pass where Krista would meet him with more food and encouragement!

We went to the planned lake to camp at and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Couch were there and a large tramily. We found another large spot that was less crowded and set up our tent there. 

Side note on Eric- he was on pace to break the FKT for Washington but according to Krista his head just wasn’t in the game so he bailed. Washington has to be the hardest state to attempt this in. The terrain is the biggest and steepest, with regular 3000 foot climbs and descents. It is also the most remote so there is a section with 400+ downed trees, and these downed trees are hundred of years old so they are huge! It’s quite the adventure figuring out how to get around them. These sections are so remote that trail crews have a hard time getting to them, so the trail continues to get more overgrown and full of obstacles. More on this to come but it was an incredible attempt to witness! And still unfathomable that Eric did in 2.5 days what it would take us 10/11 days to do 😂😭