PCT Days 68-75

I spent days 68-71 continuing to wait in Bishop for my tent, doing work for stay and just relaxing. I had to buy food resupply for all of Washington, as there aren’t many good places to get groceries near the trail. This worked out to 25 days of food, which was a bit overwhelming to shop for all at once. After getting it separated into 5 piles, I mailed out 4 of them and packed the last into my backpack for the first stretch in Washington.

As the week went on, two other hikers expressed interest in flipping. When my tent finally came in on day 71, we finalized our plans for the following day. We reached out to a trail angel in Bellingham, WA who had posted on the SOBO Facebook group that hikers could stay there before getting a ride to a place that’s easy to hitch from to get to the trailhead. So we needed to get from Bishop, CA to Bellingham, WA. Our plan: hitch the 3.5 hours from Bishop to Reno; rent a car in Reno and drive to Seattle, spending a night in Eugene, OR to break up the 12-13 hour drive; drop the car in Seattle and take a bus to Bellingham. Because of the high cost of one-way car rentals, we needed to get the car from Reno to Seattle within 24 hours, which put us on a fairly tight schedule.

We left The Hostel California right at 8 AM as planned, packs full and a sign reading “Reno” in hand. Sunny, Dreamwalker and I made our way down 395 for about a mile before reaching the supposed ideal spot to hitch out of Bishop, where the 6 splits off and the 395 leaves town. After about 15 minutes, a nice woman and her 11 year old son stopped and said they were going to Mammoth, about 45 minutes up the road, and they could at least get us that far. We agreed and hopped in. The woman was from near San Diego, and had sectioned the first 80 miles of the PCT before. She was very excited to give hikers a ride, which was nice to hear. She dropped us off at the bottom of the offramp leading to Mammoth, so we crossed the street and started walking up the onramp, sign in hand and thumbs out.

We didn’t even make it to the top of the onramp before a late model Dodge Challenger pulled over, which was a surprise — you typically don’t get rides in nice cars. The man driving said he was going to Carson City, nearly 3 hours up the road and just shy of Reno. We gladly took him up and piled in to the sleek black sports car. As he shot onto the highway, our kind stranger explained that the car was a loaner while his Jeep was in the shop, at the dealership in Carson City. This made a lot of sense, as per what I mentioned earlier. The drive passed uneventfully as we made our way through the beautiful landscape. Lake Mono in particular was striking, and our driver explained that as a closed lake system, the lake had become salinated, and the only aquatic animals it supports are brine shrimp. The shrimp are an excellent food source for migratory birds, making the lake a vital stop on their journeys. There was a whole legal battle after Los Angeles diverted some of the water, and after a prolonged fight, the lake received protection and money from LA for recovery efforts. Decades later, the lake has yet to fully recover. It’s an interesting topic to read a bit more about, as a cautionary tale of the cost of unsustainable urbanization. We arrived in Carson City around 11:30, and were dropped off near the freeway onramp toward Reno.

We didn’t have to wait more than 20 minutes before a pickup with a fit older couple and a cute dog stopped and offered us a ride the rest of the way. We tossed our packs in the back before climbing into the backseat of the truck. We quickly got to Reno while hearing about how lovely Carson City and Reno are to live in — to be fair, Reno looked pretty nice. We thanked our last good samaritans and headed into the terminal to the car rental counter. After a long line and another long wait, we were finally in a Toyota Corolla around 1:30, heading north. We got to Eugene around 9 PM and settled in at our hotel room.

We hit the road at 7:30 AM, needing to return the car before 1 PM. The drive up interstate 5 was frustrating at times but went by without incident, and we got the car back with time to spare. We caught the shuttle to the Seatac terminal, where we hopped on the 1 PM bus to Bellingham just before it left. We arrived just before 4, and bought some groceries for the next few days. Shortly thereafter, our trail angel picked us up and brought us to the hiker hangout. The house belongs to a local musician who is visiting Europe for a few weeks, and has left his home in the hands of our host, for hikers to use before hitting the trail. We’re also helping look after his dogs, which is fun.

We’re currently on our third day here as we wait out some heavy rain in the north Cascades. These northernmost miles are supposed to be some of the most scenic on trail, and we can afford to wait a few days to properly enjoy them. We’ll be heading to Mazama tomorrow, where we’ll stay a day or two at Ravensong’s Roost, a hiker hangout created by the first solo female PCT hiker, Carolyn ‘Ravensong’ Burkhart. As soon as the forecast looks halfway decent, we’ll hitch up to Hart’s Pass and start our hike. The first 30 miles will be northbound to the border, where I’ll tag the monument and turn around, hiking the same 30 miles plus another 50 or so southbound to Stehekin. From the border, it’s about 1900 miles to my finish point, and the rule of thumb is to get to that point before October 1 in order to avoid early Sierra snowfall. This will leave me just over 90 days to hike, requiring an average of about 21 miles per day to complete in time. Take into account 1 zero per week, and the required daily mileage average climbs to 24. Can’t wait to get started (again)!