Pacific Crest Trail - Day 183 - Stehekin, WA and North Cascades National Park
Start: Mile 2570.0 - Backcountry campsite
End: Mile 2586.3 - Six Mile Backcountry campsite
Many campsites along the PCT in Washington have these backcountry pit toilets which get periodically treated and moved to different sites in the area. They‘re a nice relatively low footprint solution for human waste in popular backpacking areas. About the most annoying (and grossest) thing you can find near a campsite after a long day of hiking is evidence that someone took a dump next to the tent pad. These ”thunder boxes” make finding a place to poop much more convenient, and are positioned near (but not too near!) the trail at intervals frequently enough that the following comic doesn’t really apply to the Washington section of the PCT.
We woke up to a wet soggy tent pitched on a pad of fine dust - basically making it impossible to pack up the tent without it being covered in a bunch dirt.
Oh well, it’s only ~5 miles to Stehekin and an opportunity to dry things out.
A bittersweet goodbye to Glacier Peak Wilderness - truly one of the most memorable and challenging stretches of this trail and one of the most spectacular places on this planet!
A magic carpet ride into Stehekin. You have to love the handful of miles of trail on either side of a popular trailhead into a National Park.
This tree was pretty eerie, and one of one of this sort of deformation that we’ve seen in nearly 2600 miles.
2574.5 miles!
A modest welcome to North Cascades National Park.
All smiles arriving at the shuttle stop for the bus into Stehekin, and it’s trail-famous bakery.
Water projects to create reservoirs for power generation, flood control, or freshwater storage along literally every watershed in the Pacific Northwest have decimated salmon fisheries. These particular salmon belong to a group of inland sockeye salmon called Kokanee, with an existence contained to Lake Chelan and spawning grounds a handful of miles up the Stehekin River.
Salmon are (or… *were*) a keystone species whose runs are crucial to the ecosystems of the watersheds of the Pacific Northwest. With four of the largest dams in the United States existing along the Columbia River, it‘s unlikely we’ll see intact salmon runs in this part of the world anytime soon, but the recent developments (or perhaps, rather, un-developments) leading to dam removal along the Klamath River in Southern Oregon/Northern California provide a glimmer of hope that anadromous salmon may return to these waters in the future.
Something to think about as you’re entering your query into an AI search box which is routed to power and water hungry data centers currently being constructed worldwide.
The shuttle took us ~15 miles down a gravel road to Stehekin - a resort community accessible only by plane or ferry (if you’re not hiking in).
Besides an awesome bakery, Stehekin was honestly kind of a let-down. There was a palpable friction between locals and tourists and locals and hikers. We saw a local man empty out the entire contents of a hiker box with his family pretending he was a hiker to apparently appease us - “let’s check this hiker box for our hike“. Another local woman was puzzled a bit later that the box was empty - apparently unaware that her contributions to the hiker box were being snagged by her neighbors.
Another incident involved a European hiker who took a bicycle that he thought was a community bicycle from the resort to the bakery a few miles up the road and upon returning was assaulted by a local who shoved him to the ground when he apologized and suggested that people calm down.
We snagged our box, showered, ate a burger and hopped back on the bus eager to both exit Stehekin and get back to trail to take on the last 75 miles of our 2650 mile journey.
The vehicles in and around are all older models since importing a vehicle to the area requires that it be transported by barge. This one had Oregon plates - pretty funny considering it probably hasn’t been registered in 20+ years.
We opted to take a road near the Stehekin river for a couple miles before connecting back to the PCT.
Immaculate trail, signage, and infrastructure through this section through North Cascades National Park.
Climbing into views of hazy evening skies.
Interesting cliffside caves. At least in the American Southwest these are frequently archeological sites.
A cool suspension bridge over a creek.
The biggest hoof prints I’ve ever seen. Absolute units.
We turned a corner and saw the source of the hoof prints.
Not wanting to alarm the moose, I turned and waited for Kristin to come around the corner yell-whispering “It’s a FUCKING MOOSE” 🫎
We named him Murphy and followed him at a decent distance for nearly a mile before he turned down the trail to Six Mile Camp where we were also going.
Murphy veered off trail towards the creek a bit up the hill from the campsite, trudging down a steep hillside through a thick forest with no problem whatsoever.
Following a huge bull moose for the last mile of the day was an awesome interaction.
Six Mile Camp was the busiest campsite we’ve seen on the entire trail. Campsites are limited in North Cascades National Park so everyone filters into Six Mile which is a reasonable afternoon-hike distance from Stehekin.