~White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass.

2,308 – 2,396.

Days 112 – 115.

Between White Pass and Snoqualmie Pass, the Pacific Crest Trail passes through Mt Rainier National Park. The trail also crosses a large burn area from a 1988 fire. The section ends at Snoqualmie Pass, where the PCT crosses I-90.

Day 112

What a day! I awoke at my campsite on the banks of Snowy Lake, about 10 miles past White Pass. After climbing uphill most of the morning, I reached a small saddle where I crossed the National Park Boundary.

Mount Rainier National Park is quite expansive, and includes much more area beyond the massive dome of its namesake volcano. While in the park, I’m getting some of the best views of Rainier yet, though I’ve seen the distinctive peak on the horizon since just past Trout Lake.

Rainier is a 14,000+ foot volcano with a rounded shape and large snowfields and glaciers up top. Its appearance reminds me of a chocolate bunt cake with vanilla frosting. Never have I felt the urge to lick a volcano until now.

Speaking of tasty foods, I continued seeing many blueberries and huckleberries today in the National Park. My forward progress was impeded by impromptu foraging several times throughout the day.

Hikers aren’t the only ones eating the berries. Several hikers going the other way said they spotted a bear just down the trail. I have yet to see a bear while hiking the PCT. I hiked in absolute silence for about a mile, hoping to spot the bear. Unfortunately, the bear was gone.

It was quite hot today – in the high 80s or so. The state is experiencing a heatwave right now. I keep getting heat advisories on my phone. Though this heat is nothing compared to what I experienced in the desert and in Northern California.

Partially to avoid the heat, and partially just to relax, I took a 2-hour lunch break today at a small lake. I took a quick swim, both to get clean and to cool off. I haven’t showered in Washington yet, and probably won’t until Leavenworth. I’m using dips in the river and the lake to bridge the hygiene gap til then.

As I got close to Chinook Pass (a road crossing in the National Park), I began seeing more and more day hikers out on the trail. I haven’t seen many thru-hikers since White Pass. Somehow, I got away from the bubble that formed leaving Cascade Locks after Trail Days.

However, I did run into some trail magic at the parking lot at Chinook Pass. Two former thru-hikers who completed the PCT in 2021 and 2017 were there serving up cold drinks and other goodies. They confirmed that not many thru-hikers came through today.

I hung out at the trail magic for a while, then hiked uphill to a lake where I tanked up. After a few more miles (and a beautiful sunset over the ridge) I found a small flat site to cowboy camp just above the PCT.

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Day 113

I awoke in the dark to a strange, high-pitched screaming noise. In my half-asleep state, I concluded that Bigfoot must be real and in some distress. I decided the best way to deal with the situation was to go back to sleep. It wasn’t until I woke up in the morning that I realized the unnerving sound was an elk bugling.

I dry camped last night, as I typically do. I walked for a few hours to my first water source of the day, a beautiful spring with the water flowing straight out of the rock. Since the trail stays pretty high on the ridge in this section, most of the water sources are tiny dribbling springs rather than rivers or lakes, which are typically found in valley bottoms. Good sources can be few and far between.

After the water, the trail entered a massive burn area, from a fire in 1988. I found myself in a ghost forest of standing dead trees, as far as the eye could see.

So far, there have been more burn areas in Washington than I expected. Oregon had significantly less burn than NorCal. I expected the trend to continue as I headed further north.

With the return to large burn areas, I’ve started experiencing a few open sores again. I’ve puzzled over these types of wounds since NorCal. My new theory is that they are chemical burns, from the strongly alkaline mixture that forms when ash combines with sweat. The sores form under my socks, knee brace, and hipbelt – anywhere ash gets trapped.

My second water source of the day was in the burn area. It was also a spring, though not as pretty as the first one. This one was coming out of a rusty pipe stuck into the ashy ground. I carefully treated my water.

Eventually, I escaped the burn area and found myself in beautiful conifer forests again. I made a campsite on a forested ridge with a view of the sunset. Somehow, I made it to camp by 7 pm, even having hiked 28 miles today! Tomorrow would be another big day. My food was running low enough that I really ought to make it to town the day after tomorrow before lunch.

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Day 114

It was a hot one today. I was dripping sweat before I completed my first mile of the day. I thought the current heatwave was supposed to end today, but it felt hotter than ever.

Seven miles in, I filled up my water at a small creek slightly off the trail. I grabbed a liter and a half – enough to make it to the next water source in another 7 miles.

Thankfully, I was out of the burn area today, and most of the trail was in the shade. However, on the steepest part of my biggest climb of the day, I found myself in an exposed meadow on a mountainside. Sweat rolled down my face and I grew increasingly exhausted with each grueling switchback.

As I approached the top of the climb, I felt myself approaching my limit for heat-related discomfort. And then I saw what must have been a mirage. Blue pop-up canopies and camping chairs… Could it be trail magic? Here? At the top of a mountain?

Sure enough, as I approached the encampment I found a rough dirt road, several vehicles, and two thru-hikers sitting with several folks in non-hiking attire.

“Trail magic!” One of them called out to me. I rushed over, overjoyed by the wonderfully timed surprise. I dropped my pack and took a seat in the shade.

Over the next two hours, the trail angels, who were a group of retired folks from the north Seattle area, fed me a massive quantity of food. They piled my plate high with hot dogs, tamales with mole sauce, brownies, rhubarb cake, watermelon, soda, and juice. Apparently they’d brought food to feed as many as 50 thru-hikers, but had only encountered a dozen or so. The bubble is further back than normal this year, apparently.

I left Trail Magic once a little cloud cover rolled in. It was still hot, and I struggled for several miles against my body’s desire to lie down and lapse into a deep food coma.  But eventually I overcame my grogginess and the final miles flew by.

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Day 115

I woke up in my forested campsite 12 miles before Snoqualmie Pass. Snoqualmie Pass is where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses under I-90. Nearby, there’s a ski area, a gas station, a grocery store, and a few restaurants.

Snoqualmie Pass is also one of two places on the PCT that I’d visited before starting my thru-hike. The other was near Anza Borrego Desert State Park in Southern California. I visited Snoqualmie Pass last year when I ran the Jack and Jill Tunnel Marathon with my dad. I felt eager to return to this familiar spot, reminisce, and geek out a little about the fact that I’d walked here from Mexico!

The morning miles went by quickly, even though they included a ton of elevation gain and loss. Mostly short, steep uphills and downhills through the forest – true “PUDs” (pointless ups and downs).

I arrived at Snoqualmie around noon, and after passing under the ski lifts, I walked into the tiny resupply stop on the side of I-90. My first stop was the Summit Pancake House, where Swish and I ate a hiker-sized brunch and charged our phones.

My plan was to keep walking today and not have a hotel night, shower, and laundry until the next town, Leavenworth. I hadn’t showered or done laundry yet in Washington and was already feeling pretty grimy. But with Leavenworth just 70 miles away, I felt like I could put off a night indoors until then.

However, while I was eating and researching Leavenworth on my phone, I realized that I’d be rolling through Leavenworth on a holiday weekend. Consequently, all the hotels were charging several times their normal rates. So much for my hotel plan.

I left the restaurant feeling a bit discombobulated and unsure of what to do. Right as I walked out, a car pulled up in front of me and Swish and rolled down the window.

“Need a ride back to the trail?” The man asked.

Swish and I said “no thanks” – we still both needed to resupply.

“Need a cabin?” The man followed up. Swish and I looked at each other, and then hesitantly said “Sure”!

It turned out the man had a cabin just a half mile from Snoqualmie Pass. He was a former mountain rescue worker and had summited Mt Rainier over a dozen times. He’d come up from the Seattle area to do a little work on his cabin, but was leaving shortly to go back to the city. I’m constantly amazed by the generosity of people I meet while on the trail. This man was offering up his cabin to two complete strangers to stay in while he wouldn’t even be there.

We hopped into his car and he brought us to the cabin, a small rustic place he’d built himself – complete with a wood-burning stove, solar shower, and electricity. It was a most unexpected turn of events, and exactly what I needed today.

In the evening, Swish and I walked the half-mile back to the pass to resupply and eat dinner. While at the store, we met a trail angel named Sprinter who was following the thru-hikers along the trail in his Sprinter van. Sprinter thru-hiked the PCT with an 80-pound external frame pack in 1979. That was before Mt St Helens erupted! I realized this while looking through his photo album of his thru-hike while drinking a beer and sitting with him in front of the grocery store.

After that, Swish and I returned to our surprise accommodations and enjoyed a rainy night dry and warm under a roof.