This hiking trip was Washington State’s last chance. Its third and final chance. If something terrible happened this time then I swore that I would fly over Washington rather than set foot in it, for the rest of my life. And I meant it. I can be a very stubborn man.
Our first trip to the Cascades (back in 2014) had been going great for about a week, until we had a medical issue that forced us to abort the trip via an 18 mile death march lasting an entire night. It was a scary and horrible experience. But we didn’t blame Washington for that. It could have happened in any state.
Then we made another trip to Washington two years later, in 2016, but when we got there we discovered that a forest fire had just started and our trailhead was closed to hiking. I scrambled for a backup plan, and decided that we could salvage part of the trip by entering the wilderness at a lower, less desirable trailhead. Sadly, this would mean that the hike would be an out-and-back, rather than a loop hike like we’d originally planned, but it was better than nothing. So we drove six more hours to that new trailhead and started hiking. But it was all for naught. After all that trouble, we only ended up hiking about six miles before we had to call it quits, for yet another medical issue. We turned around and hiked back out. Indeed, the trip was so short and sad that I didn’t even bother to write a post about it here on Hikingtales. We drove two days to get up there, hiked two days, then drove two more days to get home. What a waste!
This couldn’t be Washington’s fault, now could it? Surely not. Meanwhile, I was frustrated and angry. Backpacking should be challenging but ultimately enjoyable, not a series of disasters, I reasoned. I had done everything I could to make those trips successful, only to be thwarted at every turn. Therefore, I decided that the State of Washington was going to take the blame for it all, as our treks in the California Sierras and the San Juan Mountains of Colorado had had no problems whatsoever. Rationality had nothing to do with this decision. But there it was, the conclusion written as plain as day in my head. I henceforth decided to restrict our hikes to states that treated us well.
And then, a week or so after getting back home last Summer, while I was still fuming about that treacherous state, I read in the news about the Total Solar Eclipse that would be happening the following August. And it would be happening in Oregon. This was a once in a lifetime chance for me! I thought about hiking the appropriate section of the PCT in Oregon, and I did some research, but eventually decided that it would be difficult for us to do it using only one car. And then I thought about the trip we had recently aborted, about how thoroughly I had planned it out, and about how much I really wanted to complete it. Maybe, just maybe, Washington State could be given another chance. Maybe we could do the ten day trek and then hit up the solar eclipse on the way back to San Diego. It would also save me a ton of planning!
And so I decided that Washington State would get a temporary reprieve. “Third time pays for all!” I exclaimed. I faced north and brandished my fist in its general direction, vowing to curse it forever if it let me down again.
Fast-forward to 2017, and there we were, driving north for two days, pushing our luck, tempting fate, daring to hike in Washington once again.
The two-day drive was relatively uneventful. The first day was the longest, with a drive of 15 hours. We left San Diego at 2AM and drove relentlessly all day. Our plan was to camp in the National Forest land just outside of Crater Lake National Park, and on the way we took a voluntary detour in order to avoid smoke inhalation from a fire that was burning just west of Crater Lake. We almost ran out of gas on this detour, and arrived at the dirt road as the sun was setting. It had just rained (nearly extinguishing the wildfire – hooray!) and everything was damp and smelled great. We had a very peaceful rest that night in the forest. We woke before dawn and packed up the soggy tent, then drove another eight hours north to the town of Leavenworth, Washington and our motel room.
Leavenworth is a fun touristy town with a Bavarian theme, and we enjoyed eating sausages for lunch and dinner. Unfortunately, it was hot due to a prolonged heatwave, and the air was smoky due to weather conditions that were funneling smoke down south from forest fires in British Columbia and west from yet more fires in Idaho. There were still no fires where we would be hiking, unlike last year, which was heartening, although the smoky air was limiting visibility in a major way. I was not amused. It looked like Washington was heading for Strike Three. But I wasn’t about to give up that easily. The weather was due to change in a few more days, with rain in the forecast. This was OK with us, as it had rained on us back in 2014 and we’d enjoyed it. It seemed to us that rain should be expected in Washington, and we were prepared. We spread out the soggy tent on the motel’s porch to dry. We went to an outdoor sports store and went shopping. We bought Vicki a new inflatable pillow, but decided that our current raingear was good enough for now. We spent the evening charging our electronics one last time, and enjoyed the air conditioning while we still had it.
Once again, just like last year, we woke before dawn and loaded our gear into the car. This was it: We were heading out into the Glacier Peak Wilderness on a ten-day backpacking trek, and nothing was going to stop us. We had a great plan, we had great gear, and we had each other. All we needed now was some great scenery. And, this time, Washington didn’t disappoint us.
However, the great scenery didn’t begin right away. We had two relatively boring days of hiking to attend to first. And one of those days would be spent travelling through the section of forest that had burned last summer (which caused us so much trouble). But we weren’t worried about that. This was intended to be a loop hike, and we decided to begin our hike on the “ugly” side of the loop and finish on the pretty side. We were simply saving our “dessert” for last. We didn’t want to spend our final day all tired and dirty and exhausted, slogging through a disaster zone. We would end our trek on a high note.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
Onward to Day 1 >> 
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