C. Dow LaFevers

C. Dow LaFevers

First Year Mathematics PhD Student at Rice University

Day 32

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Today we made two crucial errors which combined to make a few hours of the day quite the sufferfest. The first was actually decided last night, namely that we cut in two an otherwise 20 mile water carry by taking a 1 mile side trail to a spring. This was pretty dumb for two reasons: first, we failed to realize that the water was one mile and 700 feet straight down a rocky Jeep road, and two, we didn’t understand that the 40 minute round trip to collect the water (plus time for filtering) would just need to be made up during the hottest part of the day. Hot indeed, as today marked the first day of a heatwave which we will suffer at least through the weekend.

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The second mistake was not waking up early enough; when my alarm went off at 5, I wasn’t very quick to move after a poor night of sleep, and Roadrunner was still asleep in her tent. We weren’t walking until 6, way too late of a start to meet our goal of walking the 20 miles to the Robin Bird Spring prior to siesta time. Alas, we suffered the consequences later in the day as we were forced to walk uphill the entire way under the brutal Mojave sun and with a hot, yes hot, breeze in our faces. I’ll spare the unpleasant details of this part of the day and just share a few photos I took.

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We finally made it to the spring at 2:30. I drenched myself in water, ate an inordinate amount of food (my appetizer was half a pound of summer sausage), stretched, and tried to take a nap. Unfortunately the loudest talking man on trail appeared soon after I closed my eyes, so my nap attempt was for naught. We finally hiked out at around 5:30, and the ponderosa pine forest we found ourselves in was so nice that we decided to stop around 7 at a nice flat spot half a mile off trail from Mile 607.5, for 30 miles on the day including all the side quests.

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Day 117

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I don’t think I could have asked for a better birthday than today. I hiked through some of the most choice scenery on the Pacific Crest Trail (for the second time!), we were able to not only ride into nearby Mazama with the first car that passed but actually secure a ride all the way into Seattle for the following day, and I was able to enjoy a great dinner at the Mazama pub with Roadrunner and Free Bird! He slept in today, so he stuck around for the afternoon in Mazama at the Lion’s Den hostel. After an excellent shower at the hostel, I ran into Carmen, a woman traveling with her dog from Mount Hood to Banff on foot via the Pacific Crest and Pacific Northwest Trails, then hopping in their canoe and paddling the whole Columbia River! A truly incredible last day on the PCT.

Day 116

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It’s difficult to write about today because it was a very emotional one. I’ll try to just describe what happened. We navigated the several passes between us and the border with ease and excitement, leaving an eight mile downhill to the border. Since this would also be an eight mile uphill, we decided to drop most of our stuff at Hopkins Lake and travel with just water and some snacks to make the hike back a bit easier. While we were off trail setting our shelters up, we missed Free Bird, a realization I would have a bit later which made me sad, as I thought I wouldn’t get to say goodbye. The hike down was so fast, so when I turned the corner and saw the border monument, I almost didn’t believe it was over. After taking some photos, we climbed back up to the lake with no problems and went to bed.

Day 115

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The heat, though not as oppressive as yesterday, made today much harder than it otherwise would have been. We hiked with Free Bird for awhile, ran into a guy very casually running a fifty mile out and back from Rainy Pass, encountered my first mountain goats as I walked a ridge towards Hart’s Pass, and passed a crew filming a dramatic scene of a priest walking through a talus field. Getting to Hart’s Pass, where all northbound hikers must return after touching the border, felt pretty weird, as it was a physical signal that we were sixty miles from the end. Brushing this off, we walked three more miles and made camp. Tomorrow, I finish the PCT.

Day 114

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After the hottest night I have had on trail—I slept naked on top of a picnic table for maximum airflow—we boarded the bus to leave wonderful Stehekin. On the way, Steve regaled us with more stories, anecdotes, and apocrypha; some highlights: “the national park service didn’t plant those irises, Mary did,” “that’s the only gumball machine within seventy miles!”, “I always like to tell people about this creek.* It’s called Boulder Creek. So now when you’re down valley and someone starts a story with ‘so I was up at Boulder Creek…’ you can say ‘’go on I know where that is.’ A good thing to keep in your back pocket,” “now I already told you about Ed Courtney, that’s the older Courtney…,” “I always say ‘people who want to grow a garden want to grow one like Carl’s,’” “I challenge you to find a single tree in that stand without a dapple of sunlight on its trunk.” I love Steve, he really tickled me. He’s a man who truly loves his town’s history and people as well as its natural beauty. Anyways, we stopped on the way at the legendary Stehekin Bakery, where I bought three massive cinnamon rolls (my breakfast for the next three days), a slice of lemon cheesecake (also breakfast), a peanut butter cookie (also breakfast), and a carrot cake muffin (supposed to be breakfast, but somehow made it to lunch).