Washington PCT 2015: Day 32

Goodbye, Suiattle river!

Day 32 was the longest day of hiking during the whole trip! It was also one of the most dramatic changes in altitude. Things started out nice and cool. People left camp at their own pace. Laura and I left pretty early along with Giggles. Laura was pretty much in the zone and hiked ahead while Giggles and I chatted and hiked more slowly. There were many miles of switchbacks, eventually climbing up to Suiattle pass.

Well, it was nice seeing Glacier Peak yesterday...

Forbidden peak

Taking it all in

Forbidden peak

Beautiful mountains!

Made it to the top!

Pushy deer friend

At Suiattle pass, we met a buck who was a little too familiar with people... the first of many brave deer in this area. After a short break from the long climb, we traveled on over the pass.

Beautiful mountain to the east

I would climb up there

Cool jagged peaks!

A couple miles down into the next valley, we spotted smoke. That was when things got interesting... also when Laura got her trail name! As we got closer, we realized that the smoke was coming from a fire across the valley from our trail! Team Minnesota were a bit unsure whether to proceed or not... forest fires are not much of a thing where they come from.

Team Minnesota and the fire

Doesn't seem like much smoke...

We chatted for a while about whether it was safe to go into the valley. People hiking out of the valley said it had been OK when they were there but could not vouch for later. The consensus was that the fire was less likely to travel down the steep hillside and across the river than other directions. But spending any amount of time in that valley was out of the question. It was originally where we planned to camp. So we could either take another route (but we didn't have food to backtrack) or we could push through at a fast pace. Eventually, we all decided to go for it!

More cool peaks

Team Minnesota

Here we come, fire!

Bridge has definitely seen better days

As we hiked toward a small forest fire, people tended to worry a lot. Giggles was hurting a bit and thought she might slow us down and team Minnesota were pretty nervous about the whole situation. That was when my sweet wife jumped into the fray. She cheered on everyone, encouraging them that we could do this hike! After a time of this talk, the others conversed quietly and then announced Laura's trail name. They decided that she should be called Cheerleader. Not only did that name describe her well, but it matched my name nicely. So we were dubbed Scoutleader and Cheerleader, to general approval.

Cool water slide in the forest

My brilliant wife

Crossing by downed tree

Relaxing by Agnes Creek

We crossed the river and took a dinner break. As a group, we had decided that we would not stop until we were far beyond the fire, hiking into the night if needed. So our break was an important one to really relax. I soaked my feet and stretched my tight heels. Others did what helped them relax. Then, we were off! The fire was up ahead and we things got more and more smokey. We could here trees explode and see flames on the mountain across from us!

Here comes the fire

Getting closer

Cool sunlight in smoke

Fire as sun got low

After about 2 hours, the smoke had substantially lessened and we could no longer see the fire. But we did not want to take any chances. So we kept going as long as daylight held out. We finally stopped at a large camping area where a scout group was staying. We quickly set up camp and slept hard! We had hiked over 26 miles and were a hop, skip, and jump away from Stehekin!

Let's get out of here!