Days 180-182 Miles 2565-2599

Day 180

Start: 2565 End: 2875 Total: 10

We woke up around 6:30, had breakfast then left camp around 7:30. We were aiming to do 10 miles to make the 12:30 shuttle time into Stehikin. We were cruising along pretty quickly and had plenty of time to spare. We decided to take a break and have a coffee and play some cards.

We ended up getting to the bridge where the shuttle would pick us up at 11:30. There were ten or so other hikers also there waiting for the bus. We peaked over the bridge and saw many salmon in the river. We had about an hour so decided to scramble down to the river to swim and get a closer look at the salmon.

We made our way down and plunged into the freezing cold water. It felt so refreshing. We hung out in the sun for a bit before making our way back up. We got back up just before 12 but all the other hikers were gone. We must have had the shuttle time wrong and missed it! The next one wouldn’t be until 2pm. We were super bummed but with nothing to do we went back down to the river.

You can only get to Stehikin via hiking or a ferry. There are some cars in town but we were pretty far outside of it, so chances of hitching were really low. At the river, however ,we heard a hum of a vehicle and ran up to see. There were a couple of ATVs but they weren’t going into town.

We saw another hiker we had been seeing the last couple days and he had informed us that the shuttle was in fact at 12:30. A pick up truck had come and offered rides to all the other hikers there. We were bummed to have missed the free ride as the shuttle cost $10 but were relieved to know that we wouldn’t have to wait there a couple more hours with zero food left.

The shuttle soon came and we boarded the bus and made our way into town. We learned from the shuttle driver that there were about 80 full time residents in Stehikin. There was one school house K-8th grade with about 14 students. Once kids reached high school they’d either be home schooled or would stay with a host family in Chelan, the nearest bigger town, only accessible via a ferry ride. Many of the residents families had been in Stehikin since it was founded in the 1800s. They once attempted to build a road to civilization but the terrain was too rugged and the project was abandoned.

It was awesome looking out at the river and mountains as we approached town. We stopped at the famous bakery and loaded up on treats before making our way a couple more miles down the road into town. There were many hikers waiting to load up on the shuttle back to trail and among them I saw Rocky’s curly hair. I called out the window to her and we rushed to greet each other upon us exiting the bus!

It was a surprise to see her and I had just been wondering where she was. She decided to skip the last section because the smoke was so bad and took the ferry from Chelan into Stehikin. She was figuring out her plans and we discussed finishing the trail together. She decided she would summit a nearby mountain to make up for her skipped miles. Mantis and I were feeling like we might want to take a zero day in Stehikin after all.

We got our very large package from the post office and sorted it for our next leg. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out by the lake with Potato Couch, Jubilee, D&D, Rocky, Beer Run and Captain. We went for some swims then later had a couple beers together. We set up camp above the town and had an awesome evening.

Day 181

Zero

In the morning we borrowed some bikes and rode them to the bakery, filling up on some more treats. We spent the rest of the day hanging around, swimming and relaxing. I swam to a booey that was about 100 meters or so away which felt nice to complete my goal for the day and do some swimming.

I took a really nice nap in the afternoon then we packed up camp and took the 6:30 shuttle back to trail. Mantis, Rocky and I camped where we were dropped off.

Day 182

Start: 2575 End: 2599.6 Total: 24

We had a super chill morning drinking coffee at camp and left around 7:30. We had some ups and down for 6 miles then took another coffee break. After that we started a climb up, walked 6 more miles then had lunch.

It was a steep but short side trail to our lunch spot where we hung out for a bit. After lunch the climbing continued. We had a total of over 6000 feet of climbing today! We got some more water 6 miles later then crossed Rainy Pass. We ran into trail angel Mr. Ed who gave us some Rainier beers.

After Rainy Pass we went another 3 miles, filled up water for the evening then went up another 2 to Cutthroat pass. We cowboy camped there for the evening and had an awesome sunset.