Miles: 12
Total Trip Miles: 294/2690
Sitting in my tent last night, I could see the lights from the little town of Snoqualmie and made the terrible mistake of checking if I had phone service. I did. I ended up staying up until nearly 1 am doing all the phone things. But it’s not all bad! My great-uncle, Mike, sent me a Facebook message saying he lives about 45 minutes outside of Snoqualmie and invites me to spend a night at his house. He’ll pick me up and everything. It’s a generous offer, one that gets me rolling out of my tent at 4:45 am this morning. This has been a long stretch and I could use some town time.
I’m well on my way when I encounter a very steep ridge covered with snow. The snow isn’t a long patch, only goes for about 30 yards or so, but it’s enough to stop you dead in your tracks. I’m a little dejected because I was thinking I’d just cruise into town and the worse of the snow was behind me. The trail has other plans.
After taking a good look, I decide to do a rock scramble that will bring me above and to the other side of the snow. I do the scramble, get to other side, but it’s so steep that getting back down to the trail is way harder than I thought. I’m left with the decision to either slide my pack down or backtrack. I somewhat regretfully decide to slide my pack down. It feels awful to slide down your very vital gear down a shoot of rocks but I do it anyway. It lands reasonably well, a little above the trail. I’m able to jam my hand in between a crack in a rock that lets me descend down to the trail also. Woof, crisis semi-averted.
An hour or so later I arrive in a parking lot and talk to dayhikers who tell me to follow a paved road and take a sharp. I do just that and walk up to a town that features a Chevron, a Summit Inn, a diner, a coffee shop, and a convenience store. Across the highway is the Snoqualmie ski resort, making it the second resupply in a row that’s a ski resort town.
I scope around town and land on grabbing breakfast at the diner called “Pancake House”. I open the doors to the diner and half expect it to be closed or some indeterminable reason why I can’t get food. But nope. It’ll be a 15 minute the waiter tells me but they are open as can be.
The waiter brings me to a separate section of the diner, one he says that can accommodate “my big bag.” I realize the ice axe attachment from my trekking pole is still attached and I hope I don’t look like some type of psycho. But I don’t really actually care. All I can think about is food. I order two entrees from the menu, a house omelet and “The Traveler’s Breakfast” which comes with 3 eggs, bacon, and hash browns. I also order coffee and water. And then I proceed to eat every last bite of both entrees and get three refills of coffee. It’s so so nice to be sitting inside this diner right now.
After my wonderful dining experience, I pick up my resupply from the Summit Inn. I cruise town for another hour or two before Mike picks me up. People are super friendly and 3 separate groups of people approach me and ask me if I’m hiking the PCT. I strike up a good conversation with two girls on a picnic table outside the convenience store when a man approaches me with a very serious look on his face. “Are you a thru -hiker?”
When I nod, he sternly asks if I just hiked from Steven’s Pass to here.
“Most certainly did.”
He becomes absolutely giddy upon hearing this because that is the section him and wife are just about to do and he NEEDS trail condition reports. As he is in the middle of asking me his 15th question about the snow, the girls give me a little wave goodbye and head out. Wait, I think!
I find Mike waiting for me in the parking lot of the Summit Inn and we hit the road. We stop at Snoqualmie Falls and when we get back to his apartment, he makes me Kimchi noodles with two eggs. I proceed to take a shower, do laundry, and then even get the chance grab a drink with a college friend that night. Before the night ends though, he gives me the best trail gift I have yet to receive- Vaseline for my feet. He gives me a 7oz tub of it to pack out and it’s the perfect gift as my feet are becoming dry as leather.
I leave Mike’s the next afternoon on the 13th, heading out around 2 pm. I’m planning on walking over to the local Safeway to scope some food and then my friend Megan is giving me a ride back to the trail that evening. At Safeway, I pack out cheese, lunch meat, four hard boiled eggs, and two avocados for the trail. I also order 4 chicken thighs and a carton of yogurt to eat while I do some writing and wait for Megan to grab me.
Megan drops me back off at the Snoqualmie Summit Inn at 6:30 pm and I’m right down the road from the PCT trailhead. I text Victor I’m outside the hotel and we catch up, sharing trail news. I hadn’t seen him since leaving Stehekin and he offers for me to let him crash in his room tonight.
“Nah,” I say. It is really tempting but I need to hike a few miles tonight to walk off all of this chicken I just ate. But this upcoming section we will hike together we say upon departing. He’s planning on heading out back out to the trail tomorrow morning with another hiker named Grace. And I’m planning on taking it a little slower so we should catch each other.
It’s a few minutes past 7 pm when I’m finally back on trail and I as refreshed as one can be. I have showered, washed my clothes, lathered up my feet, and packed out cold and good food. Thank you so much to Mike and Megan for extending their hospitality and giving me some good memories to carry out as I continue trekking on.
It was so cool having you, man.
Happy Trails, Great-Nephew.
It was so cool to spend some time with you.
Happy Trails, Great-Nephee.