Day 26 – White Pass, WA

ByTravis Nelson

Washington is amazing!!  I’m so glad that I made the decision to pop up to Cascade Locks and hike north from there, for lots of reasons: First, Washington is gorgeous, this is some of the best hiking on the PCT!  Also, it’s actually a relief to become a section hiker, I just feel so much less pressure to do the entire trail, I can just sort of relax and enjoy myself more.  Plus, the other section hikers are lovely people, for example, I met a couple from the Netherlands who are just hiking Washington and are basically on a 3-year round-the-world adventure… They are my heroes 🙃  Anyway, I’m totally happy and content with my choice to hike Washington, it’s actually helping me to find the love in backpacking again 🥰

Anyway, this section of trail is amazing, the highlights are seeing all of the volcanoes (I’ve had views of hood, st Helens, Adams, and Rainier), and then the goat rocks wilderness has been phenomenal – it’s still under a lot of snow, so the trek through it was a little sketchy, but wow was it gorgeous!!

For the next few days Richard is going to be here, so he rented a car and we’re going to drive around doing something?  I have no idea what, but as long as it’s not hiking, I don’t care at all.  Seriously, I could sit in the middle of a Walmart and just watch people go by all day and be perfectly content at this point.  But after I get back on trail the next stop is Snoqualmie pass (where I-90 crosses the mountains), which should be only 4 trail days away…

Crossing the bridge of the gods from Cascade locks into Washington!  The bridge crossing is terrifying, as you can see there’s no sidewalk or pedestrian area, so you’re walking with the cars, and there’s a metal waffle grating so you can see below you to the Columbia River.  It’s very unsettling.  But it beats swimming across the Columbia, but only barely
Typical trail through Washington, I absolutely LOVE the dense forest, it makes me feel at home
Panther falls!  This was a side trip off of the PCT, but worth it
One of my first views of Mt Adams!  From this point I would be hiking around the mountain in only another day, it’s amazing how quickly you can cover what looks like a long distance
Blue lake?  Bear lake?  Something like that
Trout Lake!!!  omg I loved trout lake!  It was an unscheduled stop, but as I was walking up to the road crossing someone was unloading another hiker and asked if I wanted a ride, I assumed they would have ice cream down there (they do), so I said yes!  It’s a lovely little town that really caters to hikers, they have this grassy camping area, the general store has everything hikers need to resupply, there are showers and laundry.  Basically it was a wonderful spot to hang out, eat a tub of ice cream, and talk/laugh with my fellow hikers.  Yup, absolutely loved my afternoon at trout lake

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