To Canada and Heading South

The hiking distance from Harts Pass, WA (nearest drop off point) to the PCT Northern Terminus at the Canadian border is normally 30 miles. My more circuitous route was about 40 miles, but it allowed me to avoid several of the most snowbound of the mountain passes about which I had been warned against by multiple hikers who had turned back after finding them too risky.
Whereas I hiked close to 80 miles over these first 4 days (north to Canada -> south back to Harts Pass), only the southbound of those “count” as part of my PCT hike. Shrug.

So far my surgery foot has held up fairly well and although I traversed a lot of snow fields, nothing felt too dangerous. My legs on the other hand look like the adage “death by a thousand cuts”, a collection of scrapes accumulated by crawling over, under and around one of the worst sections of “blowdowns” (fallen trees blocking the footpath) I’ve ever hiked. But perhaps the most unusual development so far is that the temp here in Mazama, WA (20 miles hitch from Harts Pass) will be around 111 degrees tomorrow, the apex of a week of dizzying heat. It’s strange battling deep snow and burning sun in the same instant, but luckily the bugs have also been feasting on us too, ha!

Tomorrow morning I’ll continue Sobo toward Stehekin, with a river bridge reportedly washed out between here and there, meaning I’ll likely have to circumvent that with another 10 mile section of less-than-desireable trail. Nice. I hope you enjoy the pictures I’ve included. I also made this PCT video playlist of short videos I’ve taken so far and hope to continually add to it with each new post. TTY again from Stehekin, WA time permitting! Max