PCT day 106 - mile 2443 to mile 2471 (Stevens Pass, Skykomish)

"Washington is up and down like this from the beginning, I'm sick and tired of it" Chimney [Sobo hiker]

The end is nigh and you can sense the anticipation in everybody going north at the moment. Lots of Sobo hikers congratulates us as we pass them, I was initially not happy about it, but they are right it is a reasonable assumption that whoever made it that far will end up at the Canadian border.

Fire season has started, the section on the California/Oregon border is on fire, 60 PCT hikers had to be evacuated from the area. Parts of Sierra Nevada (not on the trail itself) is also on fire. Fomo's friend George who hosted us in Snoqualmie Pass has hiked PCT three times, he has never done it without skipping a section because of the fire closure, we did (well technically not just yet) we managed to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail without dropping anything and that ladies and gentleman is insane! It has been a very special year on the west coast, lots of snow and rain, temperatures were not raising to alarming levels until few weeks ago, so much so that all the berries that the PCT is usually covered with at this point did not pop yet at all! There's hardly any blueberries or huckleberries to be seen or eaten on the trail and I take this trade every time.

As for todays hike, I walked 22 miles to Stevens Pass, arrived at the road just before 3pm and managed to catch a quick hitchhike from one of the construction workers going back home to Skykomish, a tiny town with a gas station and a deli style restaurant. It took us 20 minutes to get there, I went straight into the deli place where I met Sonic sorting out her resupply and charging her phone. She had a lot of spare food from her resupply package and as she planned to drop it into a hiker box I took it instead, heh. I had a Reuben sandwich and a soda at the restaurant, bought few horribly overpriced snacks and went to the gas station to get some protein and carbs - they had cans of Spam and Pringles which was good enough, I also grabbed few Grandma's Cookies for breakfast.

After that we stood by the gas station to get a hitchhike back to the trailhead, and again we got it quite quickly, one of the guys who stopped at the station asked us where we going and after recieving an answer he told us to hop in. Once we got back we briefly met Quicksilver who was on a mission to hike another 12 miles today (it was nearly 6pm at that point). Stretch and him left back on trail and I decided to check out the Stevens Pass Lodge which had a hiker box, I wanted to drop Fomo's shoes I was wearing there and jump back into my old La Sportivas for the remainder of the trail. Unfortunately Lodge was closed so I left the shoes by the entrance, I also met Big Foot aka Lazarus sitting next to the Lodge, I hiked with him and couple of others (Ravi, Sunrise, Mama Troll) for couple of days from Kennedy Meadow North, he didn't remember me at all. He returned (got resurrected!) back on trail to support his daughter who is also thru hiking PCT. Unfortunately he got injured again and was spending few days in Stevens Pass to recover, planning to skip to Steheken (our last town before the border) on Thursday.

I went back on trail and hiked five more miles with a decent climb up and I'm spending night by the Valhalla Lake! Absolutely kick ass name, we have to go through the Valhalla to complete the trail, thank you Norse god's for supporting our endeavour, much appreciated!

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