PCT 127 – Stehekin

Daily Miles: 20
Total Miles: 2570

Once our feet finally warmed up last night, we both slept warm and good. We dreaded putting on our wet shoes this morning as it was really cold out. Luckily none of our stuff froze overnight (probably because we were under a bunch of trees), but Gazelle and RoadRunner both had clothes and shoes freeze (probably because they were camped in an open meadow). We put on an extra layer beneath our rain gear before we headed out. We don’t normally do this because we are very conscious of keeping as much of our clothes dry as possible. But for today, we knew we were heading into town (hopefully to a motel room), plus the skies had cleared up and it didn’t look like it would rain on us. The trail was clear of snow as we headed out. There were some patches of ice on the trail, but as we descended, it seemed to go away quickly. We could see the sun hitting the tops of the surrounding mountains and were excited for a warm and sunny day.

The trail was fairly smooth today and quite a bit of downhill. Most of our breaks were just for changing our layers, but we did stop for one break to eat a meal. We made it down to the bus stop to go into Stehekin just after 4:00. The next bus wasn’t until 6:15, so we decided to make a hot meal and eat the rest of the food we had on us.

SweetPea’s feet are in pretty rough shape after walking in wet shoes for the past four days. She has a lot of raw spots on her feet that are pretty painful. It will be nice to have some time to dry her feet out in town tonight. Hopefully they will feel better after the short break.

We had a chance to dry out our tarps and a few other things that were wet. RoadRunner and Hammer came by and took a break with us before they headed on. They were planning to resupply at the next road crossing, so we should meet up with them again in a few days. Just after they left, Navigator showed up and we ended up hanging out and chatting with him until the bus came. We always enjoy spending time with him.

Once we got into town on the bus, we saw Gazelle and MountainMan. Luckily MountainMan had gotten the last room at the lodge. The four of us and our smelly stuff are crammed into a room with one bed, but it feels like heaven after the last stretch on the trail. It is so nice to be warm and dry. We have all made sure that our alarms are turned off so we can sleep in as late as possible tomorrow.