Hannah the hiker

I left for my big PCT SOBO adventure over a week ago. The one song that has been stuck in my head since then is “sitting, waiting, wishing” by Jack Johnson.

The next leg of the train ride was from Chicago all the way to Portland. I was on the trail from 2 pm Monday to Wednesday 10 am. I packed two bags of trail mix and some pretzels which were gone within a day.

The train to Portland had gorgeous views as we went through North Dakota and Montana. I hung out in the lounge car reading my book and soaking up the views. Because of my lack of planning, I ended up buying lunch and dinner on the train which consisted of a microwaved tamale, Doritos, and microwaved pizza. Yummy!

Portland to Seattle was depressing as the train went right next to tents where homeless people have set up. I haven’t seen much of that in Northern New York, so it was upsetting to see. However I did get a glimpse of Mount Hood which the PCT passes by.

I made it to Seattle by 4 pm Wednesday and headed to the American Hostel. I was able to wash up and order some “real” food.

From the hostel I started for the Mediterranean restaurant where my warm and tasty falafel gyro was waiting for me. 5 minutes into my walk and I realized how stupid of an idea it was to walk by myself. There were people lining the streets either laying down or standing up and talking to someone I couldn’t see. I felt like a ping pong ball crossing the street back and forth to avoid walking past people. This received some weird looks but I just tried to keep my head down and keep under the radar which is difficult to do in a bright t shirt and Fanny pack. I made it to the restaurant in 30 minutes with only a handful of catcalls from people.

The next morning I had to go back to King street station to catch a bus to Mount Vernon. At Mount Vernon I met with two other people hiking the PCT SOBO and were also heading to the same hostel I was going to. We figured out the confusing bus schedule and made it to Sedro Woolley where we would be staying for a couple days. At the hostel there were about 8 other hikers waiting to start the trail too. I had my first ever spaghetti sandwich and enjoyed a warm bonfire that night. It was comforting to see other people getting ready for the trail and hearing about their lives. When I set up my tent that night it finally started to feel like I was getting closer and closer to really starting this thing.

However, after that first night in Sedro Woolley I was getting antsy again. All everyone did was exchange the same thoughts about the snow and asking each other what we are going to do to pass the time. We went into town to see chainsaw carvings, the new top gun movie, and shop for food. It felt like I was doing all of these things that really amounted to just passing time for the snow to melt. I hitchiked for the very first time in my life with two other hikers, which was exhilarating. We got a lot of thumbs up back, I’m not sure people understood what we were trying to do but thankfully one friendly guy did.

Finally 8 of us decided to ride to Mazama and stay at the hiker hostel there. We got some great intel from people who have went and touched the Northern Terminus on the low route. No one has gone through the regular PCT route to the terminus yet and the reports of the trail are grim. I’m accustomed to walking in the snow but this trail is a different animal. There are steep slopes, cornices, avalanche risk, and high chances of glissading dangerously down the the sides of the trail. It’s just not doable with an ice axe and micro spikes which I brought.

Today we all pitched in to have a cookout and celebrate the Fourth of July. All day we have exchanged sentiments about the trail. Today alone we have probably come up with about 15 different plans to touch the terminus or start the trail. Each one gets more elaborate, at first it was let’s drive up to Harts Pass and see what it’s like, now it’s let’s take the skis and ground sheets and blaze the trail.

The hardest part of this whole ordeal is having to be patient. Patient with the snow melting, patient with other hikers, and patient with myself. It has only been a week and one day since leaving home but it’s felt like a month.

I knew it was a high snow year but I never thought I would be waiting around for this long. I have been walking around and going for short runs to keep busy and relieve some anxiety but I know it won’t go away until my trail runners touch the real trail.

The hikers I’ve been hanging around and I have a group chat titled “PCT Tears and Beers” which I think sums up this experience so far.

So for those of you waiting for my big first report of the trail, that’s all folks. Tomorrow we are heading to Harts Pass to get a look at the trail for ourselves.

For now I’m just waiting around here refreshing the Harts Pass snotel report waiting for the snow level to be at zero.