Woke up to snow falling. We had 29 miles to get to High Point where there's a shuttle bus to Stehekin. In this terrain we knew we couldn't get there by tonight, but if we pushed it, it might be possible to get there for the 9am bus tomorrow. That way we'd get there before the post office closed on Sat morning, pick up our resupply box and not have to wait till Monday for it. Challenge! Fun! Snow!
Our concern was getting over the high pass in the snow, but first we had a decision. Take the new PCT trail and go over a bridge, which adds an additional 4.8 miles, or take the old, non-maintained PCT route and hope that the scary log crossing is still there. No competition, the log crossing it is.
This section has been the most isolated and wild we've encountered, there are no fire roads or service roads so it must be very difficult to maintain the trail. The old PCT route was even more wild. There were huge knocked-over trees crossing the trail, wash outs and overgrown sections which made the trail like an obstacle course. Awesome! No need for podcasts today. We were both fully engaged in the trail, ducking, climbing, jumping, only stopping to ring out our gloves. It rained all day.
When we got to the infamous log river crossing Tracy and I followed the cairns upstream and I saw part of the large log. But then we heard people shouting at us from across the river downstream. We walked the quarter mile back downstream and found out they wanted to tell us hikers that they had successfully crossed at another log even further down river. This was turning into a rather long shortcut, however we all (Frosty, Goldilocks, Shredder and Tracy) crossed the log using various styles and methods and finally found the trail on the other side.
The pass wasn't a problem but we decided not to race to make the post office as Tracy had bad cramps in one of her legs and had to slow down and didnt want to make things worse. (We eventually remembered, thanks to my dad, to take salt. She said her leg improved by 80% almost immediately.) We also didnt want to walk in the dark. Just as we were approaching camp in the half light we spotted Cherub, our South African hiking buddy. She had fallen in the river when using a rope and was drenched. Fortunately her sleeping bag was protected. She wanted to make the post office too and was planning to hike in the dark till 9pm. Such a trooper! I asked if she'd cried after she got soaked. "No, my feet are dry, I have waterproof socks." She also took Tracy's drivers license and offered to pick up our package for us. Meeting people like Cherub, Bebo and Sharky, and Booboo Kitty who demonstrate such strength of character has been one of the highlights of the trail.
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