Friday August 9, 28.1mi/45.2km

Ogle Creek (498.7/3802ft) to Cow Pond (526.8/4272ft) (WA)

Since I did so many miles yesterday, I slept in until 7am today. I started walking at 7:30, and said my usual greeting, “good morning cows!”

The morning was an 11-mile dirt roadwalk on an old forest service road. I was enjoying counting down the mile markers, and this one inspired me to play some rap music.

I stopped at the Sweat Creek picnic area for lunch, and then hiked up a short mountain under gathering clouds.

Coming down the other side, I saw plenty of springs to fill up from. I’m glad I filled up at the first spring, and didn’t wait for the second one! Bleh.

I could see the clouds thickening, and there were a few light sprinkles, but nothing umbrella-worthy.

On the descent, I was mostly in the trees, so I was paying more attention to the things nearby, rather than the views. I saw a PNTA trail crew had carved themselves a name…

And this bridge needs some help. Good thing all the creeks are dry.

The trail came out at a dirt road, but someone had put up “private property” signs, gates, and weird plastic skulls. It seemed like they were squatting on public land, and it was just plain creepy.

On the dirt roadwalk, the “Deliverance/Hills have Eyes” theme continued…

There were probably a dozen junk cars, abandoned RV campers, hundreds of “keep out” signs, a few unabomber-style shacks, gun propaganda, and even two loose junkyard dogs (one got kicked). WTF is wrong with people?

After a mile of that insanity, the trail moved on to a nice open grassland area, it reminded me of the Southland District (NZ).

And later, some nice farm fields that were freshly mowed.

Because my planned 20-mile day would have me stop in Deliverance-land, I kept on walking. And walking. Finally, at 6:30pm I reentered public land, and I setup camp a few hundred meters over the boundary, at a cow pond. Moo.

Thursday August 8, 25.7mi/41.4km

Thirteenmile Ridge (478.5/4518ft) to Ogle Creek (498.7/3802ft) (WA) + 5.5mi alternate route

Another hot day was forecast, so I was hiking early at 6:45am.

About an hour into the day, I had an option. I could do a 2.7mi bushwhack, or a 5mi alternate that is on a trail. I chose the trail!

Despite the map calling it the “Trail to Hell”, I enjoyed it immensely.

Towards the end, it dropped into the San Poil River canyon, with 1000ft volcanic rock walls.

There was a short bit of paved roadwalk to link back to the official PNT. It was getting hot, so I didn’t stop until I was off the shadeless road. At least the views were great!

The road also briefly crossed into Colville Nation territory. Neat!

I stopped for a break and to refill water at a FS campground. Most of the rest of the day was on dirt roads, and I only saw one car in five hours.

Just before I stopped to camp, I crossed into a new national forest. Goodbye Colville NF, hello Okanogan NF!

I stopped to camp near Ogle Creek, I don’t normally camp near creeks but water is so scarce here. It’s a nice spot, though a little creepy to hear the cows roaming around here in the dark. Moo.

Wednesday August 7, 18.5mi/29.8km

Sherman Pass (460.0/5436ft) to Thirteenmile Ridge campsite (478.5/4518ft) (WA)

I met up with Karrie at the coffee shop at 7am, as we had planned. She is a local trail angel who helps out hikers with rides, and sometimes showers and food too. While we were waiting for her coffee, I briefly met two other PNT thru-hikers! Sweets and Lorax, both from the east coast. There are other hikers out here!

Karrie dropped me off at Sherman Pass, and I was in my way. I even spotted the elusive PNT marker!

The PNT continued along the Kettle Crest for a few hours, and it’s a nice trail among beautiful granite mountains.

I could see into the valleys down below. It looks like the smoke from the nearby wildfire has accumulated down there.

Just before leaving the Kettle Crest, I found a cabin! It can be reserved thru the USFS, complete with cots, woodstove, and longdrop toilet.

And then, I left the nice trail and did a short bushwhack. It was only 2.5 miles, but took as many hours. Lots of rock scrambling, log hopping, and weaving around small cliffs. It was hot, and slow. I finally came to the end of it, and found some water.

And someone had decorated this boulder, and now it looked like a face with teeth. Haha, snaggletooth rock!

The rest of the day was uneventful, but went slower than expected. The map for this part is very inaccurate, and omits all the switchbacks that exist, thereby underreporting the mileage by at least a mile.

I arrived to a campsite at 6pm, and stopped for the day a few miles short of my goal. The slow bushwhack, combined with the underreported mileage, made for a very long day.

Tuesday August 6, 19.5mi/31.4km

Profanity Ridge (440.5/5728ft) to Sherman Pass (460.0/5436ft) (WA)

It was already warm when I started walking at 6:30am, but there was a nice breeze. I hiked thru the last part of the burn area, it was probably another 3mi/5km.

And then all of a sudden, the PNT turned left, good thing I was paying attention! I haven’t seen any PNT markers at trail junctions here in Washington, but Montana had plenty…

And as soon as I left the burn area, I started hearing cows in the forest. I never saw any, but this cattle trough had some nice water. Reminds me of the CDT!

Around mid-morning I reached the summit of Copper Butte mountain, elevation 7100ft/2165m. It was a nice spot for a sit, and there was a nice breeze too.

Another summit view.

As I was descending back into the trees, I started seeing many mushrooms. And this one was particularly enormous!

The last few miles were just purely enjoyable walking on a magnificent trail in beautiful weather. These are the days that I kept hoping for on the AT…

I got to Sherman Pass at 3:30pm, and since it is a very lightly traveled road, I didn’t get a ride until 4:30pm. It was a 45 minute drive into town, since there was road construction on highway 20.

I got dropped off at the grocery store at 5:15pm, did my shopping, and walked across the street and grabbed the last motel room. I had a super quick shower, since everything in the town of Republic closes at 8pm, and I still had to do laundry and eat dinner. I ended up eating a microwave meal in my motel room, since the restaurant’s kitchen had closed early. I’m grateful to be getting back on trail early tomorrow morning, with a ride from a local trail angel, Karrie!

Monday August 5, 27.1mi/43.6km

Taylor Lake (413.4/2185ft) to Profanity Ridge (440.5/5728ft) (WA)

I started very early, at 6:45am, in an effort to beat the heat. And I mostly did! The climb up to 5000ft was gradual, and I was at the top at 11am. And then I entered a burn area from a 2015 wildfire.

I love these cattle guard devices in the roads. I want one for my driveway!

I stopped for a break to enjoy the last of the shade, before I entered the main part of the burn area.

And a few minutes later…

Even though I was up at 5000ft, with no shade it got warm fast. Still, it was better than being down in the valley where it was almost 100F/37C!

The Kettle Crest Trail is nice, and I can tell much work has been done to improve it since the fire. And new bridges!

I hiked to my planned camp spot, but it was full of standing burned trees… too dangerous. Camping near these “widowmakers” is usually a terrible idea, as they can easily fall over and crush the tent. So I kept walking. And walking… the burn area wasn’t ending, and it was almost 7pm. I finally found an area that was out of range of any nearby dead trees.

And with all that extra mileage today, it looks like tomorrow I’ll be heading into the next town a day early!

Sunday August 4, 23.2mi/37.3km

Northport (390.2/1355ft) to Taylor Lake (413.4/2185ft) (WA)

I packed up and said goodbye to Jami and Alison; Josh and Ryan were still sleeping. Sorry guys! On my way out of town, I hit the Mustang Grill for breakfast.

I ordered a ton of food, starting with first breakfast…

And then second breakfast.

An hour later, I left and began my daily miles. Crossing the Columbia River was fun, and even way upstream from Portland it’s still huge!

It was only 9:30am and already starting to get hot. I got out my umbrella (“chrome dome”) and that helped some. I also occasionally stepped into the stream that the trail was following.

The entire day was on a dirt road, which was actually kind of nice since there were no cars. But, there was also minimal shade.

I stopped for lunch at the 400-mile marker. Rollin along…

The were no big climbs or ridgewalks today, but still nice scenery.

Throughout the day, I had been seeing cows alongside the road. These cows were in the road, and only begrudgingly moved when I shooed them away.

I accidentally overshot my planned camp spot, since I was busy counting cows. Oops! I don’t walk backwards, so I continued on the dirt road.

Two miles later, I found a camp spot hidden in the pine trees, so it was shaded and safe from cows. Perfect!

Saturday August 3, 20.0mi/32.2km

Silver Creek Road camp (370.2/3130ft) to Northport (390.2/1355ft) (WA)

I had a great night’s sleep by Silver Creek, the sounds of water blocked out everything else. Today started out walking a dirt road, and there was plenty of wildlife.

After an hour, I turned onto a very deserted paved road.

Another nice morning, there were cows mooing but I didn’t see them.

After probably three hours of walking, the road approached and followed the Columbia River. Even this far upstream, it’s still a huge river.

I was getting bored of the paved roadwalk, now with almost no shade, so I jumped over to the adjacent railroad tracks.

After 20 miles of roadwalking, I arrived into town at 2pm. It was hot, so I went straight to the grocery store for an ice cream and cold beverage.

I cooled off, did my resupply for the next section, and walked to the house of local trail angels, Jami and Josh. They are super awesome people, and very entertaining to talk to. Ryan and Allison arrived just after I did, and we all had a meal from their huge garden!

After a big meal, we said goodnight to the dogs, chickens, and cats, and setup our tents in the yard.

Friday August 2, 23.1mi/37.2km

Metaline Falls (347.1) to Silver Creek Road camp (370.2) (WA)

I knew there was a big climb today, so I started early at 7:30am to get ahead of the mid-day heat. I crossed the Pend Oreille River leaving town, it was so calm and quiet in the early morning.

The climb started right away, and I climbed gradually on a dirt road for the next four hours. Nothing too exciting.

And then, a trail! The last couple of miles before the summit were in a sparse pine forest.

The view from the summit of Abercrombie Mountain (7300ft/2225m) was spectacular.

Uh oh, smoke! I called the Colville NF headquarters and alerted them.

I caught up to Alison and Ryan, whom I had first me a couple of days ago in town. We descended together, and it was fun to have other hikers to talk to!

As we got lower, the forest changed to an aspen (birch?) canopy.

I stopped at a camp spot at 5pm, after covering 23 miles today. Alison and Ryan continued for another three miles, so they would have fewer miles to do tomorrow, and get to the post office tomorrow before it closed. Theoretically, today was the last day in Grizzly bear territory, yay! Tomorrow, another town!

Thursday August 1, 0mi/0km

Today was my first Zero (zero-mileage) day of this hike, a much needed rest day. There isn’t much to say about today. Emily and I got a ride down to Ione, WA to entertain ourselves. The driver’s car had a funny drawing on it:

I mostly lounged around the little town of Metaline Falls, which is three blocks long. I’m almost caught up on calories, on emails, and some of my TV shows… life is good. Tomorrow, onward!

Wednesday July 31, 5.8mi/9.3km

Sullivan Lake campground (34.7alt/2631ft) to Metaline Falls (347.1/2077ft) (WA)

I packed up a dry tent (yay!), and started the couple hours of roadwalking into town.

It was a paved road the entire way, but very few cars, a nice quiet morning.

As I got closer to town, I picked up phone signal and made some calls and organized some logistics for the next section. Just before town was an old mill!

I arrived into Metaline Falls at 9:30am, and went straight to the Cafe for 2nd breakfast.

Mmmm… second breakfast. Milkshakes!

I went across the street to the Post office to get my new socks, and then checked into the Washington hotel at 11am. Tiffany was so nice, and let me check in early!

I spent the rest of the day eating and relaxing. I met a couple of other Thru-hikers, Ryan & Alison. And Emily arrived later in the afternoon! (I had last seen her in the bushwhack three days ago). It was a fun evening of socializing with all the hikers in the hotel’s lounge/living room. And tomorrow I’ve decided to take my first zero day of this trail!