WA Section K: A Ninja Mouse, Rain, Fall Foliage, a Marmot, More Rain, Glacier Peak’s Knockout Punch, and a Gorgeous Ferry Ride (27 photos, 2 videos)

Section K is 123.3 miles long and runs from Steven’s Pass to Rainy Pass. However, the Bannock Lakes fire closure caused a reroute that shortened this distance and we took a nero-day in Stehekin. So my Section K shall be 99.2 miles long and run from Steven’s Pass to Holden Village, where we caught a ferry ride up Lake Chelan to Stehekin.

September 20th - 24th.

Day 137, 14.1 miles to Lake Janus with a pitstop in Skykomish.

Some rain hit during the night and we woke up to a weird situation…there was a Jolly Rancher candy on the roof of our tent body, but underneath the rain fly. Last night, I had some Jolly Ranchers in a small ziplock in my hip pocket and I took them out after I had already put my food away. So I put the bag in the top gear pocket in the tent since we weren’t in bear territory and I figured it would be safe. Then I noticed a hole was chewed into the gear pocket and it all clicked. A mouse ducked under our rain fly, climbed about 30” up the mesh of the tent, chewed a hole into the gear pocket, extracted one Jolly Rancher, and then dragged it up onto the roof to snack on it!!! What a little thief. I was mostly impressed with his climbing skills. We had a good laugh about this, got packed up, and hiked the short four miles through a thick fog before arriving at Steven’s Pass. Some other hikers told us that the nearby Mountaineers Lodge/Hostel is about to take a shuttle full of people down the mountain to Skykomish so we headed over there to try to catch a ride. Moose and Midge had made the extra push to arrive last night and stayed indoors. The lodge had a drying room so we hung the rain fly and tent inside before hopping into the van heading to town. The rain had stopped and we were pretty adamant about sticking to our plan to get back on trail today, we didn’t want to spend a night in every single town in Washington. So we got some town food at a diner, picked up our food drops from the post office, and then scored a hitch back up to Steven’s Pass. We sorted our food and hung out in the basement of Mountaineers for a couple hours and then took off. It was a nice stretch for a few miles with a wide trail tilted slightly downhill. The weather remained dreary but at least it wasn’t actively raining. We made it up and down the big climb and agreed to stay at Lake Janus instead of starting the next climb in the dark. Moose and Midge caught up right as we arrived and we found a secluded campsite for six or seven tents. We made a fire, cooked dinner, had more rum tea, and watched some episodes of Netflix’s “Big Mouth” on Moose’s phone before calling it a night. We were curious as to where Pickle Pacer ran off to because he agreed to meet at Lake Janus but never showed up.

Kehr’s Chairlift at Steven’s Pass Ski Resort.

Day 138, 26.3 miles to Reflection Pond.

We soon found Pickle Pacer still in his tent, right next to the trail. He didn’t go the 15 or 20 yards off trail to the campsites or see the fire last night so he missed us. I soon became too hot on the ascent and slipped out of my rain jacket, gloves, and beanie (or ‘toque’ as the Canadians call them.) We topped out at Grizzly Peak but the clouds were still out in full force so we were not rewarded with any views before dropping back down and then back up to Pear Lake where we took a break. I tried to sew up my rain pants since they had huge rips in the crotch and cuffs and more closely resembled chaps but the Frogg Togg material isn’t very thread-friendly. A distant view of Glacier Peak came and went a few times throughout the day and it just looked menacing. It was the only peak that still had snow caps and was usually surrounding by lenticular clouds. There were more 1000+ foot vertical up and downs for the rest of the day and we kept pushing on, trying to crush as many miles as we could before the rain hit. We knew that wet miles take longer and we were hoping to make it to Holden by the night of the 23rd so we could catch the once-a-day ferry on the 24th. We took another break at Sally Ann Lake which was completely still and perfectly reflected the cliff face on the far side. I again tried to sew and glue Sea Lion’s shoe back together and I wasn’t sure they could take many more surgeries. We might have to just wrap the whole thing in duct tape and hope it holds. We then blasted our final miles, just past the 2500 mile marker, and arrived at Reflection Pond right as darkness fell. It started drizzling as we picked our way up the last hill so we chose to set the tent under some tree cover. We were pretty lucky that the rain stopped as we set up and cooked dinner. I was unlucky that I spilled most of my macaroni in mud as I was straining out the extra water. I was lucky that I packed an extra macaroni for an emergency meal. We were also lucky that we packed out some beers to enjoy with dinner. Then we were unlucky that the wind grew furious and pounded on the tent all night and led to some terrible sleep.

Sally Ann Lake reflecting like a mirror.

Day 139, 25.4 miles to camp on a spur trail leading to a privy.

The toilet that saved our lives…more on that at the end of the day. It rained enough all night that the tiny pond was on the brink of overflowing so we had to squish through some muck to reach the trail. The rain was heavy and sustained all day so I kept my camera packed away in my bag and only took a few GoPro videos. The trail had a long descent next to a series of big waterfalls surrounded by lush greenery and big trees. We crossed a bridge over White Chuck Creek which had a roaring waterfall and then another bridge over Baekos Creek. Then we were in lower grounds and the trail conditions grew horrible, they were all flooded and had tons of downed trees we had to get around. Further on, the log bridge over Kennedy Creek had snapped in the middle but was wedged in place and still passable. About halfway up the next climb, there was a rock overhanging the trail and provided some shelter from the rain. We stopped for some quick snacks and were blessed that the sun peeked out for a few minutes but then it was back to rain. As we crested the next ridge a thick fog rolled in and the rain picked up causing the trail to convert to a full stream bed. It looked like it would be a beautiful valley on a sunny day, with tons of switchbacks and stripes zigzagging through exposed rocks. We knew it would be getting very cold when the sun went down so we hurried as fast as we could and thought we would either camp at Mica Lake or at the bottom of the descent near Milk Creek.

This is about when the day gets even worse. When we reached the lake, it began to hail and was extremely windy so we kept hiking. We got down to a raging creek and saw that the logs to cross it had washed away and we couldn’t gauge how deep the raging water was because it was full of silt. This was not a good crossing to do just before dark so we turned back to look for some flat ground. There was none. It was either cross the creek or hike back up 1000 feet over two miles of flooded trail to Mica Lake and camp in the hail. So I found what looked to be an easier path and we trudged through the knee-deep water and made it unscathed. However, we were really cold now and the fact we hadn’t eaten much all day meant that our bodies were struggling to warm back up. As we made our way another two miles and 1000 feet down to Milk Creek, we hit a section of switchbacks that completely washed out and left a 50-60 foot sheer cliff. So we had to cut the switchback over some very slippery mud and then climbed around a massive tree that fell in the middle of the trail. By the time we got to Milk Creek, darkness had set in and we couldn’t see any of the campsites. They weren’t “official” sites, just ones listed in the comments on Guthooks (trail guidebook phone app) which mean they are usually further off trail and not obvious. We decided we had to hike on. Then Sea Lion’s headlamp died. To make matters worse, the rain fogs up her glasses so she couldn’t hike with those to aid her vision and she was basically flying blind. I scoured our guide app and hoped there was something sooner than the next listed campsite which was 4.2 miles ahead and 2200 feet up. One comment said there is a long spur trail, about a mile up from Milk Creek, that leads to a pit toilet and there is possibly room for one tent.

Extended version: https://youtu.be/AVHuijCs1-o

We crossed our fingers and took off along the skinny trail, up the slick and steep switchbacks. I took the lead and held the headlamp and would slowly swing it so I could see ahead and then shine it back so Sea Lion could make out the trail in front of her. I would warn her of any slick rocks or roots sticking out and we picked our way up. We hit the junction and were indescribably relieved as the tiny flat patch of ground was not already occupied by another tent. My fingers were frozen and almost stuck in a claw-like grip from holding my trekking poles and head lamp so it was a struggle to get the tent set up. It is a tricky dance to remove all your wet clothing, leave it out in the vestibule, and get into your dry PJs while keeping the inside of the tent and sleeping bags as dry as possible. We then cuddled for a bit to warm up and felt like going right to sleep for the night but knew we had to eat since we barely ate all day and were at a larger than usual caloric defecit. We were low on water and didn’t feel like cooking so we ate the rest of our snacks and would just have to cook all of our meals over the next day and a half. This was hands down the most miserable and trying day of the entire trail. The only moments when I was truly scared. One slip or stumble on a switchback would have been costly. Glacier Peak and the PCT tried to throw us a knockout punch but we persevered.

Day 140, 30.2 miles to camp.

We set an alarm for 6a.m. and planned to do a 30-miler so we could make the Monday ferry to Stehekin and also have bragging rights of hiking a 30 in each state on the trail. However, when the alarm went off we immediately agreed to sleep in and just night hike instead. The previous day drained us. We stirred awake around 8, ate breakfast, and then went back to bed. It was 10:45 when we finally hit the trail and began the long climb up to the top. There was a beautiful ridge that the trail stayed beneath and I was sad knowing that Glacier Peak was right behind it but we never got another sight of it. A friendly marmot greeted us and posed for photos for a long while. We filled up some water and began the next long descent to Vista Creek where we took lunch. A sliver of sunshine filtered through to the forest floor so we tried to dry some things out but the sliver soon faded away. We then needed to cross the Suiattle River which had a bridge that was washed out so the trail was rerouted three miles downstream to a new bridge. Why didn’t they build the new bridge near the site of the old one? Because now we get to hike an extra six miles! I thought about taking the old PCT route but with how much rain we had the day before I did not want to ford that raging river. We took a dinner break at Miners Creek as the dark of night began to sink in. It was 2200 feet up in the dark before we reached the Cloudy Pass Junction which was the start of the fire detour. It soon went down some huge rocky steps below a majestic ridge and provided a view down the valley we had to hike through to reach Holden Village. I took some night shots of the stars before the clouds devoured them again and then we hiked down the huge drop to the valley. There were only two listed campgrounds on the reroute info but we were still determined to hit 30 miles before settling in. We lucked out and found a tent site at a geological survey marker which seemed to be randomly placed. We were gassed after the big miles coupled with two 2000+ foot climbs and two 2000+ foot descents but at least tomorrow was an easy seven miles to Holden Village.

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Day 141, 7 miles to Holden Village.

We were still exhausted when the alarm sounded but we certainly did not want to miss the ferry to Stehekin and get stuck in an off-grid village. I was stunned by the beautiful fall colors of the valley and tall rocky peaks flanking each side. It almost made me sad that we night hiked down into the valley and missed out on the view in daylight. The sunlight crept over the ridges about the same time as we turned the corner and caught the direct rays of the rising sun. Sea Lion and I kept a steady pace and never felt like we had to switch to a high gear to make it. We arrived at the outskirts of the village which had a creepy vibe with a few unfinished yurts, random antique car parts laying around, and a decaying brick wall near what looked like it used to be a park. We found our hiker friends in the cafeteria snacking on the breakfast leftovers that the staff donates to the famished hikers. So we joined them in eating bread pudding and making some absolutely delicious toast on homemade bread. About 20 hikers then piled into an old school bus which wound its way down a bunch of switchbacks to a boat dock at Lucerne. Lake Chelan had crystal blue waters that looked quite inviting for a swim but I had no desire to be cold again, the memory of the weather around Glacier Peak were still too fresh. Fun fact: Lake Chelan is the largest lake in the state and is 55.3 miles long but, on average, only two miles wide. We piled onto the ferry full of tourists who are always amazed to be meeting such gnarly-looking and bad-smelling hikers. I set my camera on the bow to get a timelapse of the ferry slicing up the long lake with beautiful mountains surrounding it. We arrived at Stehekin and helped the crew unload all of the luggage and backpacks before we caught a shuttle a few miles out to the famous Stehekin Pastry Company. We ate mighty hearty there; deli sandwiches, pizza, cinnamon rolls, and many pastry treats. Back in town we set camp up the big hill behind the Golden West visitor center and then posted up on the huge porch outside of the general store. It felt like Kennedy Meadows again, with the sun shining, smiles on everyone’s face, and plenty of beer in celebration of the final trail town. The last stop before Canada!