“The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong, that’s when adventure starts.” -Yvon Chouinard
You would think that after preparing for a multi month trip for over 6 months that you would have every little thing accounted for or at the very least, the major ones. There would be no unpleasant surprises early on and everything would flow smoothly from the start. I certainly thought that way but would soon find out how wrong I was.
We were surprised to find ourselves in a 95 degree heat upon landing in Wenatchee, WA. A series of progressively smaller vehicles brought us the 130 miles north to our start at Hart’s Pass, where we found relief from the heat with the higher altitude. With what appeared to be a full campground, we elected to get started that evening, setting off on the trail just after 6 pm on July 8th. We travelled 5 mi through the alpine among vibrant Indian paintbrush flowers and blueberry shrubs that were yet to fruit.
After 5 mi, we found ourselves at our tentsite, with another tent already set up 30 yds or so down the hill. I set up the tent, then got started on dinner. While waiting for the water to warm up, I decided to start in on one of our homemade granola style snack mixes. Right away I noticed Something tasted off. I tasted the granola but what was that other taste? Soap? How could that be? These were brand new bags and we had tried everything at home with no ill results. Not long after, we realized that the insect repellent wipes we had brought and placed next to the food, had not only leaked through their plastic bag, but had gone through the plastic food bags and contaminated the contents within. We now had a few pounds worth of citronella coated food. Strike one.
Thankfully, our main meal did not appear to be tainted and following that, we turned to the tent to rest after a couple long days of travel. Given that Din weighed 21 lbs 4 oz at the start of our trip, we had to be ruthless with regards to what we brought along so as not to have too heavy packs. One of the things that didn’t make the cut was an inner bug net for our tent. We (I) figured nowhere in the lower 48 had as bad as mosquitoes as we did at home and that others’ definition of a lot was tolerable. So the net stayed home. As darkness fell and we settled into our sleeping bags, we heard the familiar buzzing of mosquitoes. I’d brush one from my head only to have another land a minute or so later. Outside the tent, a mule deer stomped around the campsite, running off after getting hit with the light from my headlamp. More mosquitoes buzzed inside. After an hour or so, we heard scurrying our heads. Mice! Mosquitoes still buzzing about. Amidst the frenzy, Din woke up about every hour screaming, overtired from the long travel and not easily comforted . Alana and I argued what to do about all this at some point in the middle of the night and nobody slept. Especially not the poor souls in the tent down the hill. Strike two.
Bleary eyed come morning, we sheepishly greeted the people from the other tent and apologized as we packed up our stuff to leave. Before setting off, Alana was going to grab some water from the nearby creek and wash some of Din’s diapers from the day before.
She asked “Can you get me the soap from your bag?”
“No, it’s in your bag.”
“No, it’s not”
“Yes it is, I’ll get it.”
A check of her pack, then my pack and then both packs again indeed proved that she did not have the soap. And neither did I. One of our largest concerns prior to the trip was what to do about diapers and we managed to forget perhaps the key item that would make our strategy work. Strike three.
Down but not out, we adapted to our new circumstances and carried on. Thankfully, our first section was short so we were able to adjust without much hardship. We ate around (and ate) the insect repellent food, we were more diligent about choosing campsites and changed how we set up our tent. And finally, we had a couple extra disposable diapers from our travel and were able to use those plus the ones we had brought for the section until we reached our first town, Stehekin.
Humans and wilderness
Alana and I realized early on that we had not envisioned or given any thought to what the areas we were hiking through would look like prior to starting. All of our focus during our preparation had been on logistics, gear and training, with little regard for the places themselves. On the trip, we were faced with the environment at the forefront of our focus and were generally pleased with what we found. Hiking nearly 500 mi through Washington brought us up to alpine meadows and forests, through old clear cuts and fresh burns with wildflowers lining the trail, along riparian and old growth forest and across mountain ridges of loose shale.
Accustomed to off trail travel, I would look around at the areas adjacent to the trail and try to envision travelling through without the aid of a trail. I was generally surprised to find the areas extremely rugged. The ground was firm and dry, unlike Alaska, but there were often heavy blowdowns, steep slopes and thick vegetation. It made me appreciate being able to travel quickly and with ease on tla cleared path.
Despite the ruggedness, neither Alana or I thought that any of the areas we traveled through felt like wilderness. This being the case even with walking through a few officially designated, capital “W” Wildernesses. This feeling is primarily attributed to human impact, in terms of both infrastructure and presence. We figured in advance that we would see many more people than we would hiking at home in Alaska, but the reality was more than double our expectations. Each day we generally saw about 60 people, or roughly one person every 10 minutes we were on the trail. On the most crowded days, we would see people every 5 minutes. That daily total far exceeds the number of people we’d see in a whole summer in Alaska and more than I’d see in a week tromping around the forest preserve near my childhood home in suburban Chicago. At times it led us to wonder if we were better off leaving and doing something else.
Increased human presence results in impacted sites, decreases the habitat of and displaces other animals. As such, we saw very little of large wildlife, let alone their sign, despite the distance we covered. The Alaskan author Lois Crisler once wrote, “Wilderness without wildlife is just scenery.” It is very likely that this has changed just in the past decade as the book/movie “Wild” as well as the pandemic brought many more people to the trail. I wonder if others know what they are missing. If you live in a city and haven’t experienced an intact ecosystem or true wilderness, do you know what’s been lost?
Baby Din
Din has been enjoying herself, spending her days in the pack babbling away, napping and looking at the sights. She enjoys chewing on and playing with anything she can get her hands on, including rocks, pinecones, dirt, plants and sticks. Halfway through Washington she learned how to wave and has been enjoying practicing every chance she gets on trail and in town.
Our greatest difficulty with having her on the trail is napping. Not because she isn’t willing or capable of doing it on the move in the pack, but because of all the people we pass along the way. We very frequently spend 20-30 minutes trying to calm her down and sing songs, only to have someone pass by 10 minutes after she falls asleep and exclaim something like “Oh my god!” “Aw there’s a baby in there!” “Hey look at the little guy!” Early on, we transitioned to just waving (instead of verbally greeting others) and having the person in advance advise oncoming hikers we had a sleeping baby but that didn’t end up working either. Alana eventually started using hand signals to indicate that she was sleeping which worked pretty well.
Sadly, babies and young children seem to be a novelty in the outdoors in modern western society. People seem to forget our origins and how humans have lived for the bulk of history. With this in mind, we have a decent number of people who assume we are out for just a short trip. “So you’re just out for the weekend then?” “You guys are just doing a section?” “Just out for an overnight?”
That being said, our interactions with others on the trail have been overwhelmingly positive. People have been very kind and we hear daily how what we are doing is incredible and how we are amazing. Normally, I think this would go to my head but both the trail and care for Din tires us out so much that we end each day feeling humbled and wondering if we will succeed in our efforts. There are also some people who remark how they should’ve brought their kids out or ask us questions about doing so. It has been heartening to see that we seem to serve as inspiration for others.
Our only other real challenge is towards the end of the day when Din is in the purgatory hour and ready to leave the pack. More than a few times we have found ourselves 2-3 miles from where we’d like to camp, on a steep uphill with Din fussing on our backs. So in between breaths, we sing “The wheels on the bus go round and round…” for the umpteenth time that day while exerting forward and trying to maintain our sanity. Other than that, the challenges of dealing with a 9-10 mo old baby are not much different living outside than indoors.
Our only real goal is to be past Forester Pass (the highest point of the PCT) in the Sierras by October 15th. In a normal year, this would allow us to be out of the mountains before new snow falls and sticks for the upcoming winter. We started out our trip scheduled to reach that point about a week after that date. So far we have been able to travel quicker than we planned, walking 20 mi/day versus a planned 18.5 mi/day, putting us a few days ahead of schedule. Oregon’s relatively flatter terrain provides for a good opportunity to continue to improve on our time and be more in line with our goal.
Miscellaneous
-As planned, we did not hike the northernmost 30 miles of trail which would’ve involved hiking the same stretch of trail twice (for 60 mi total). We felt stretched enough going with Din and didn’t see the extra mileage and time being worth our effort. Ironically (?) and not planned, we did not hike the southernmost 30 miles of trail in Washington. Before starting the southernmost section we had read of lots of bee activity. Sure enough, we saw lots of bees, wasps and hornets along the wayand halfway through the section Alana got stung. She is deathly allergic, so we made the decision to not risk any more encounters and we hiked out to the nearest road.
-We have only suffered minor injuries to date. Alana and I both got sun poisoning on our hands, leading one of mine to swell up like a balloon. Alana had tendonitis for a few days and I had issues with one of my IT bands. Both went away after a few days of aggressive stretching.
– The vast majority of thru hikers we pass wear headphones, listening to podcasts and music. We have noticed that this leads to a sort of “trail vision” where these hikers miss things along the trail like other people or bears. I’m convinced that if sasquatch was 30 ft off of the trail that most thru hikers wouldn’t see him.
-Nearly half the thru-hikers are foreigners. The vast majority are Australian followed by Germans, British, French and Japanese
Biggest tree:Western Red Cedar. >20 ft diameter at breast height
Animals seen: Black bears, mule deer, mountain goats, elk (only tracks and scat), hoary marmots, black squirrels, chipmunks, mice, pika, badgers, frogs, toads, garter snakes, lizard
Birds seen/heard: American Robin, Gray Jay, blue Jay,Pileated woodpecker, great horned owl, unknown owl, Swainson’s thrush, raven, hummingbird, various unknown songbirds
Strangest animal encounter: A deer approached us as we were breaking down camp then proceeded to follow us for 3/4 of a mile.
I love reading your posts! You are very observant and thoughtful and a good storyteller. Looking forward to more!
Amazing. I teared up seeing the pictures of baby Din being… baby Din out there. Thanks for sharing Jack.