Stehekin to Stevens Pass – The Walk

As soon as I arrived in Stehekin, I walked to the post office to pick up my first PCT resupply package. I was relieved to see that my package was delivered on time (as Stehekin is so far away, packages are brought by boat). I walked to a nearby bench and worked to fill my bear canister with food. I sent too much food and ended up donating some of it.

Next, I plugged all of my electronics into the charging station so they would be ready to go in the morning. Then I headed down to Lake Chelan for a quick swim. The water was ice cold but very refreshing! I was surprised to see smoke in the distance coming from a nearby wildfire (one that posed no threat to the PCT).

That night, I met up with the small group of hikers I met at the “6 Mile” campground the night before. We met for dinner at the «North Cascades Lodge at Stehekin» and our group quickly grew as other hikers saw us. Soon, we had a group of over ten hikers and the conversation led to fun interviews that gave each of us the opportunity to tell our life stories. We went around the table and shared our hiking goals, occupations, emotional states, etc. It was definitely my favorite moment of the trail so far! We talked until after sunset and then walked up the hill to the camp above Stehekin for the night.

The next morning, I got up early, as I was considering taking the early bus back to the trail. The call from the local bakery finally convinced me to stay later that day! I walked with two other hikers, Tigger and Space Cowboy, along the trail toward the bakery Stehekin is famous for. It was a 4 mile detour, but it was worth it. We stopped there again when the bus picked us up around 11am.

The bus dropped us off at High Bridge and we began Section K, one of the most notorious on the PCT. The trail through this section is relatively unmaintained, and is riddled with blowdowns and at times very overgrown. Plus, it required one of the longest food hauls on the entire trail…approximately 108 miles! Tigger, Space Cowboy, Sunshine and I took off at a slow pace, weighed down by kilos of bakery.

As daunting as the section was, I was glad to have made new friends in Stehekin and we covered this entire section together. Tigger, Space Cowboy, and Sunshine were my first trail family and I was thrilled to have their company. I was also given the name of my trail «Daddy Long Legs» during this section because of my ability to climb the drop-offs using my long legs.

For the next 7 days, we stumbled, climbed, and stumbled through Section K, and were blown away by the beauty of the North Cascades. The unmaintained sections were worse than expected, and two people (one of them we had hiked with a few days earlier) were medically evacuated a week after our passage. But the pain was worth the reward, as the ridges where the trail emerged from the woods offered an incredible view of the mountains around us.

Crossing one of the greatest catastrophes

Above Milk Creek, one of the most notable sections of the trail in Section K

trail family

Mica Lake

Climbing from Mica Lake to the Red Pass

View from the red pass

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