July 26-30, days 118-122
PCT kilometers: 3,694; kilometers hiked: 1,978
A few important things to report on the last leg (to Trout Lake):
The mosquitos are back! After we'd been more or less spared during the last two weeks in Oregon, we thought we'd finally left those pests behind. Alas, two days after Cascade Locks they turned up en masse, making hiking rather difficult. We can only hope they'll eventuall disappear on our way to Canada.
A few words on mosquitos, to illustrate the extent of this scourge: Due to innumerable bites inflicted directly after Trout Lake, Sabine spent all night scratching instead of sleeping. Once the body relaxes inside the sleeping bag – after hiking, pitching the tent, changing clothes, cooking, and eating – the bites start to itch. First one, then two, then a third antihistamine. A maximum of two are recommended per day. The heat of the day and strenuous uphill hiking means you don't want to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts all the time (the pests even bite through thin leggings), otherwise you sweat - and sweat attracts the buggers. The breaks are the worst, when the mosquitos descend on you because you're not moving. You throw on a jacket and hope they'll leave you alone. Sometimes you get lucky - and wind, which means fewer mosquitos; or you find an inexplicably mosquito-free spot.
To protect yourself while hiking, you need diverse repellents, e.g., a "natural spray" made of eukalyptus and lemon, or peppermint and lavender oil, or a spray with DEET in various concentrations (25, 40, 100 percent). DEET 100 leaves such a gross film on the skin that we went back to using the 40, which we fortunately found in the hiker box at the Village Inn in White Pass. And a mosquito net to wear over your head. Mosquitos seem to have a particular taste for Sabine’s earlobes, forehead, and – a new thing – cheeks. But it's uncomfortable to wear the net over your head all the time.
Here in Washington, small black midges have joined the biting crows: they leave "lovely" big red and itching spots on her skin. This requires an arsenal of after-bite preparations, including peppermint balm and, for the really tough cases, pills. Olli, too, has started to use spray repellent; the constant surrounding buzz is too annoying. But he's lucky: he doesn't get bitten often, nor do the bites cause such extreme reactions as Sabine suffers. Evenings we take especial care not to let any biting pests get into the tent: we often eat inside the tent. Not exactly "gemütlich"!
Besides mosquitos, of course, the other topic of conversation is our encounters on the trail. In two small trail registers between Cascade Locks and Trout Lake, we found an entry from Martin "Jukebox" from Bonn – but just from Martin alone!! He’d been hiking with Oilking, Rabbit Rabbit, Mockingjay (the latter two from Belgium), Lawrence of Cascadia, and Seashells; after Mockingjay’s accident in the Sierra, Oilking, Lawrence, and Seashells left the Sierra (without visiting the hospital), flipped to Seattle, and planned to hike southbound from there. For days we'd wondered when our paths would cross.
Rabbit Rabbit and Mockingjay wanted to continue after Mockingjay’s recuperation. In Cascade Locks, we learned from Papa (whom we'd last seein in Agua Dulce, CA) that both had quit the trail. After Mockingjay’s recovery, they'd flipped to Snowqualmie Pass, WA, where they wanted to reenter the PCT going southbound. But snow and mosquitos nixed their plans; they're back in Belgium now. But where were Oilking, Seashells, and Lawrence?
Sabine registered us under Martin "Jukebox" in the little notebook that was hanging on a wilderness sign. What a pity; we'd missed him by one day, or perhaps he was in Cascade Locks while we were there: while he was having a free hiker beer at the Thunder Island Brewery, and we were in the Ale House before heading northbound across the Bridge of the Gods. Bad luck. Oh, and Seashells, Lawrence, and Oilking: Oilking had had enough, and returned to Germany; the trail had felt like work in the end. Seashells and Lawrence continued their Honeymoon in Washington and planned to meet up with Martin in Oregon. We found all this out via e-mails from Martin. He wants to hike for as long as his schedule permits; after several lows, his enthusiasm returned in Washington. Maybe we'll see him again when we return to hike the Sierra, after reaching the end point in Canada.
Speaking of reunions: just before we were leaving the Ale House, Jonas (Herbal Witch) and Andi (El Problematico) popped in, whom we'd last seen at Shelter Cove Resort. They'd skipped the Sisters leg in Oregon, and gone directly from Bend to Trout Lake. From there they’d gotten a ride to Cascade Locks, where they felt there were more places to eat and the food was better. This is Andi's last stop; after 2.5 months’ hiking, he’s returning to Germany, as planned. Jonas is continuing.
Now, back to the most recent leg of our hike, which took us to White Pass, which is a cluster of buildings along Highway 12, including a lodge with a pool and a gas station with a shop and mini fastfood restaurant. In the winter, the place is hopping: the ski area is located directly above the street. We booked a room at the Village Inn, since we desperately needed to recharge all our devices overnight. In the last days, we'd lacked charged batteries for the cameras because the trail went through a lot of forests and the sun couldn't properly reach our the solar panels. Besides, we craved a bed and a good shower, there was laundry and shopping to do, and we needed to clean our equipment. Laundry and grocery shopping was only possible in the shop restaurant, which had just closed at 6 pm, when we arrived. We couldn't even buy a couple of beers. We'd tried to arrive earlier, but the ascents made breaks necessary, and the long descent took forever, accompanied by the annoying mosquitos.
Then, a blessing in disguise: the nice manager of the Village Inn, Elise, has a husband who brews beer. For a small donation, he gave us a tasting of various beers that he brews himself in the new brewery in nearby Packwood. Elise also had a hiker box of which she could rightly be proud, several shelves ... We were able to stock up on lots of food, plus DEET 40. An intense interview with the two of them followed, since Elise had hiked the PCT in 2013. Their seven-month-old daughter Fern made a cameo appearance – and how could it be otherwise, with the baby's onesie printed with the words: "Born to move Mountains." How the couple came to settle here and why Elise hiked the PCT without Nat – will be revealed in our film ... After a dip in the warm pool, more beer and nachos and crackers from Elise’s shelves, blogging, reviewing photos, communicating with family and friends, and Sabine’s new tv passion (the Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show), we slept like logs.
The highlight of this leg of the trail was definitely the Goat Rocks Wilderness, an area along the main ridge of the Cascades (south of Highway 12), which affords a fantastic view of Washington’s mountain panoramas: Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens, later Mount Rainier. Here we met up with Old Goat Club, Brent (Tow), and Doug (Old Goat) again. Brent’s trail name is now Scout.
He has since sent us the link to his YouTube-Video with us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i7MRkYB8v4
Check it out: SWOH appear at about minute 4'15. The whole video is worth watching - it's funny, too – and Brent is as much a fungus fan as Sabine, photographing every single one he encountered.
Speaking of Washington: Hiking in Washington is very strenuous because it's all up and down, and mostly switchbacks, with a lot of altitude changes. Cascade Locks, for example, was the lowest point on the PCT between Mexiko and Kanada (51 meters above sea level). Not even 10 days later we passed Goat Rocks at about 2,300 m – and had a spectacular view of Mount Rainier, Washington’s highest mountain at 4,392 m.
Yesterday evening we experienced sunset on the ridge; spontaneously decided to spend the night at 2,050 m (originally we'd planned to continue down the mountain for another 2 km, despite darkness), and were rewarded in the morning with a gorgeous sunrise. We're really glad we got to experience this. The tent site was a bit exposed, directly above a snow field, but it was calm, with no rain or storm expected.
The next section will take us about 150 km to Snowqualmie Pass, another ski area. Hope to be there in 6 days, after which you'll hear from us. By the way: day before yesterday, we were approached near a stream by John, a section hiker, who spoke to us by our names. He recognized us from our blog! We were overwhelmed. It makes every minute worthwhile, even though it's sometimes stressful when it's late at night. So, many thanks also to Gabi, our translator.
(Note from the translator: You're welcome! Anything for a little vicarious fame, hm? ;-D )