Sobo PCT 2021 Series (part 1): Harts Pass to Canadian Border to resupply at Mazama

Here begins my Pacific Crest Trail journey. I’m going South Bound (Sobo) this year. Follow my journey in the next posts. The most recent day is at the top, and the oldest day is at the bottom.

PCT SOBO 2021 series: Mile 17.1 to 29.4 with 20mi hitch to Mazama (12.3 mi today, avg 12.66 mi/day, 63.3 mi total, day 5): Mon July 5. I woke up pretty early today (6:30am) and went through my morning routines in the overcast daylight, saying goodbye to Carl as he walked north up the trail. John was only just finishing packing up when I started my way south towards Harts Pass. I kept up a decent pace, about 2mi/hr uphill almost the whole time, stopping only twice to splash water on myself and fill up when I realized there wasn’t any more water on the map before my planned campsite near the upper parking lot of the pass. There were a lot of people on trail, including some Germans, day hikers, and runners with dogs. Some older guys tried to give me a trail name as I walked passed them, but I wasn’t ready to give up my claim on Slowly Dying to some strangers. The heat of the day caught up to me less than a mile from my stop, so I rested in the shade for a second before pushing on to the end. Two lovely older ladies, Roxy and Pat, who I had passed on the trail offered me a ride to Mazama before I could even ask, and I spent the hour hearing their amazing life adventures and learning about some local flowers that they liked to take pictures of. In Mazama, I grabbed a sandwich and a chilled Yerba Mate to guzzle while sitting outside a real estate office to charge my phone at an outdoor plug. Since it got pretty late sitting there and I wasn’t too hopeful anyone would be driving up the 20 mile dirt road so close to dark, my dad offered to pay for a room at the Mazama Ranch House ($130). No AC but it had a fan, hot plate, shower, soap and the ability to wash and hang all of my sweaty smelly clothes were welcome; there was even a hot tub converted into a cold tub because the weather had been too warm. I’m hoping to catch a ride up to the pass to camp in the morning.

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PCT SOBO 2021 series: Mile 6.4 to 17.1 + 1.3 for water (12mi day, 12.75 mi/day, 51mi total): Sun July 4. I woke up long after the sun had risen, Still Lauren was gone, Donuts was just stirring and Dr. Dab was still dreaming. The bugs were already bad, so I ran to the lake to wash up and do some laundry, then ate a bar in my tent while I packed what I could from the safety of the mosquito netting. The grueling switch backs out of the lake were not my favorite wake up, especially since the air was smokey and obscured the beautiful distant views. I hiked solo the whole day, passing a surprising number of female-presenting hikers of all ages (go girls!). Lunch was a quick affair of flavored tuna, chips and nuts, taken in the shade near Woody Pass. I also spent a few minutes sun bathing by a freezing creek just down the way before the even worse switchbacks up to Rocky Pass. Mid way up, I noticed the thick clouds coming in quickly, and connected the dots with the heavier and colder wind. Needless to say I started making much better time up the slope, and warned everyone I came across to beware the storm. I passed Still Lauren, also rushing to make camp before the storm hit, and kept going a couple more miles to make camp near Holman Creek Trail, where there are a lot of flat spaces. I set up camp and took a nap inside to avoid the bugs before hiking 1.3mi round trip over and under huge blown down trees to get to a glorious, deep, cold river to wash up and fill up my bottles. Back at camp, I spent the evening hanging out with John and Carl. The evening wrapped up with us all having a good laugh over John’s bear hang attempts. I’ve been stretching 2+ times a day, and somehow my muscles, back and a nerve in my left forearm only seem to get tighter and more stiff.

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PCT SOBO 2021 series: Mile -2641.7 to -2653.1 + 0 to 6.4 (17.8mi, 12.87mi/day): Sat July 3. Bright and early we ate a quick breakfast of bars, and while we were packing up camp a thruhiker sat on a log and told us his disastrous stories from the day before. The views were outrageously gorgeous, with low fog clinging to the valley and mountains below us the whole morning. We made it down all the switch backs and the remnants of snow to Hopkins Lake around lunch, where we ate and splashed ourselves clean while being feasted on by mossies. We set up camp nearby, where a bunch of other tents already were, and packed only our food, filters, water, first aid kits and a warm layer to do the 12 miles to and from the Canadian border “Slack Packing”. Our place was very very slow so the 6 miles to the monument felt endless, crawling over blow downs, bush whacking through the overgrown, muddy trail. We arrived to see a bunch of Canadians who had hiked from their side of the border, and one other thruhiker who were all taking pictures and enjoying themselves. The sites to see: a 5 tier wooden post delineating the end of the PCT, the metal obelisk that denotes the border, the massive strip of clear cut no man’s land, and signs for the parks on either side. We took a nap in the shade for a couple of hours, then boogied back on up the trail. I didn’t want the uphill to take forever, so I took off on my own, snacking and cold soaking spicy chilli, to arrive just as the sun was falling behind the mountains around the lake. I stretched in my tent to avoid the squeaters, and came out when Still Lauren arrived and started chatting with Donuts and Dr. Dab, who set up camp right next to us.

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PCT SOBO 2021 series: Mile -2628.4 to -2641.7 (13.3mi): Fri July 2. We got up after the sun rose to an overcast sky, did some laundry and breakfast, and packed up. I hiked all day with Lauren (currently introducing herself as “Still Lauren” until we can figure a better one out). The views just kept getting better all day, and we saw so many friendly thru-hikers going to and from the border, willing to share details about the trail, the fire smoke (there seem to be a couple of small fires nearby), snow conditions, trail names, etc. It got over 87°F, and we were sweating non-stop. Lunch of cheese and crackers was taken by a stream right alongside the trail, where we splashed our faces and pits, and sat in sports bras to dry off the sweat. Rock Pass was supposed to have the gnarliest snow, but only had a couple of snow shoots that were easy to cross with only trekking poles (a tumble would have meant death, though); a guy joined us for a short section, probably as a safety precaution since we had all heard horrible rumors. We decided to call it a day at Woody Pass, which has fabulous views, several good tent sites about 100ft off trail, and a great tree with some perfect PCT bear hang branches. At dinner, over cold soaked corn and bean soup, I suggested some trail names for her: “Sad Corn”, “12th Times the Charm” or “Hit or Miss” (she can’t throw a bear hang rope for shit), Can Opener (the one she hated the least: she was able to open my BOT 700 when it got stuck), etc. The mosquitoes got intense after we grabbed some water from a nearby trickle, and she got in her tent while we both sent our various garmin messages. I found a great spot to dig a hole to see a man about a horse with a great view (Dig Dig poop trowel worked great for cutting through roots, and some soft pine needle branches made for great TP). We had less issues with a bear hang today, but the high winds made it a little harder because our ropes kept getting tangled. We sat around a lot because we had a lot of day light. She went to bed early and I stayed up making notes for resupply and things to send home. I heard ice or rocks calve off of the surrounding mountains for the second time.

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PCT SOBO 2021 series: Mile -2622.5 to -2628.4 (5.9mi + 2 road walk): On July 1 I left Seattle around 9:30am with the help of my cousins Jess and Stephen after mailing a resupply box to Stehekin. In Mazama, I dropped off another resupply box at Goats Beard Mountain Supply store before we drove the almost 20 miles (mostly on dirt forest roads) towards the Harts Pass trailhead. We passed by Lost Boy, who was trying to catch a hitch, and he hopped in about 10 miles in. We were in a sedan and they were worried the car wouldn’t make it, so they dropped us off about 2 miles from our destination at 1pm, and I walked the rest of the way in about 90°, bluebird weather, seeing a deer and some marmots and chipmunks (road walks SUCK). The ranger station at the pass had a visitors log that was day after day of Sobo PCT thru hikers making their marks; the rangers were nice but didn’t know anything about the trail conditions. I actually missed the trail and had to back track a quarter of a mile, and was very excited when I finally saw the first PCT trail marker. There were a couple of trees down and patchy snow in some very flat areas, lots of little snow melt streams and a couple of bigger ones. I saw only 2 other sobos, heading south (they said they didn’t need their axes on the way back from the border because the snow had melted completely). I lunched on string cheese and crackers, and I filtered 1.5L of H2O by a stream. I was pretty shocked that there were so few other hikers, but I honestly didn’t mind one bit because the scenery and the bird and insect sounds and the wild flowers simply didn’t need humans to make them enjoyable. I hiked about 6 miles past Harts Pass (for a days total of about 8mi because I’m trying to take it slow the first couple of weeks), stopping only to put some Leukotape on some hot spots that were already forming on my left foot, and bringing my ice axe out for just a short section, to a beautiful site about 400+ft off trail and off the creek; the deciding factor for the campsite was the tree by the water with a huge branch for a bear hang. Dinner consisted of some trail mix and my first ever cold soaked meal (some sort of dehydrated bean soup concoction). The air was a very comfortable temperature, especially with my new Arc’teryx puffy. Lauren, a Canadian girl who had messaged me on IG previously, showed up at camp and joined me for the night. We spent a good hour trying to figure out the PCT bear hang, and I think we did a pretty good job for our first time, although we got eaten alive by mosquitoes and didn’t finish until after dark. She plans to get up super early and do a lot more mileage, so I probably won’t see her again, which is unfortunate because she seems like good people.

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June 24-30: Final days of preparation. I weighed about 128lbs when I started the trail. My pack, with full snow gear (ice axe, micro spikes, extra layer, etc) weighed between 16 and 17lbs. David helped me do an REI and Safeway run, where I grabbed some last minute gear and 17 days worth of food. We meal prepped all night: 7 days to get to the border and back at a 10-12mi/day pace, 4 days to leave in Mazama and 7 days to send to Stehekin. My permit start date was June 25, but due to not being prepared, worries about snow, a massive heat wave and a package that hadn’t yet arrived, I didn’t start until the 1st.

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Thanks for reading! I hope you follow the rest of my journey.