PCT SOBO DAY 6 – Follow the horses

Day 6

Home: Rainy Pass, Mile 61.2

END: Stehekin, Mile 80.7

Walked miles: 19.5 miles

This morning, I woke up after a wonderful night of sleep despite sleeping next to the road. With my ear plugs, the low buzzer of the cars that faded in the background.

With my first steps of the day, I started a new section of the PCT, section K, which is supposedly the most difficult section. Today was a soft introduction to him. Starting from Rainy Pass, the path was soft and especially downhill through the wooded forest. At certain points, the path was a bit covered. However, after entering the Cascades National Park, I soon saw that the path had been freshly careful. I even found a team of paths doing maintenance. Thank you, trail and volunteer workers!

Even so, there were some sections in which it was difficult to see the path because the brush obscured it. I fell twice in a period of 5 minutes because I did not see a hole in the floor. Well, at least I didn’t hurt anything.

The miles passed relatively fast until 10 in the morning, when the sun began to heat things. In desperate water and a break for lunch, I stopped in Maple Creek, which was a considerable stream/waterfall with an unstable suspensive bridge over it. When I stepped on (and shook) to the bridge, I concentrated on walking straight and not looking down. Once I passed, I took my lunch in the shade and the fresh breeze provided by waterfall water.

I reverged, I continued, following Bridge Creek until I crossed it and arrived at the Stehekin River. On the way I saw a massive tree that reminded me of the great oaks in the AT. I am not sure how many years this tree was, but it seemed much broader than the largest in the AT.

Soon I arrived at High Bridge Camp, where there were really horses! So far there have been so many stock camps along the path, but I hadn’t seen a horse yet!

I followed the horse’s ways and finally addressed High Bridge Cabin and the road to Stehekin, my second repayment stop. There was only one problem. I had missed the 3pm transport service in the city for 40 minutes! The next did not arrive for another 2.5 hours.

Not wanting to wait, I thought that walking along the 11 mile road to the city hoping to get a hitch would be a good bet. After 2 miles, it was worth it! 2 couples for the weekend stopped in their off -road cart and offered a walk; They did not go directly to Stehekin, but they would take a walk anyway. Awesome!

We stopped at Rainbow Falls, an imposing waterfall, one of the largest in the country, as well as in the famous Stehekin bakery. I have 2 squares of pizza (more like rectangles) and a brownie for dinner. After showing me some more of Stehekin’s places of interest, I arrived at the «city» itself. Actually, it was Stehekin Lodge and General Store, where most hikers spend their time.

After greeting some family faces, I did some tasks, I picked up my refueling package from the Post Office and configured my store in the group camp. Until now, Stehekin and Lake Chelan are beautiful. It is idyllic in a very European and Swiss type of people. There are so many so many that the group site is full of capacity. With luck, that means I can find more people while I am on their way.

And that is a day in the life of a PCT Sobo hiker!

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