Day 146 – 9/20/11 – 26* miles (2569**)

This morning started out nicely with no rain and plenty of blue sky. A couple miles in we hit a freshly cut section of trail. Back in 2003, major flooding severely damaged a lot of the trail and took out the bridge over the Suiattle River. There has been a detour in place ever since. However, we stuck to the original PCT anyway, as most thru hikers do now. Trail crews have done a great job with removing blowdowns and repairing the trail, thanks! I was looking forward to the notorious log crossing of the Suiattle River. For at least a few years, hikers have been crossing the river on a big log just upstream of where the bridge used to be. People are known to scoot across on their butts rather than risk walking on a slippery log above swift glacial melt. This log is something I read about frequently in my preparation for the PCT, and to me, was as much a part of the trail as the McDonalds at Cajon Pass. To my delight and horror, the log crossing is no more! A new bridge is complete! From the bridge, we couldn’t even see the log.

I walked as fast as I could all morning, still holding out hope of making it to Stehekin today. The long and fairly steep uphill after the Suiattle didn’t help. By lunch, it was obvious we weren’t going to make it, not even close. How could we have only done 12 miles by 12:30? This afternoon, Ninja ran into The Lone Ginger who had spoken to a ranger earlier in the day who told him the new PCT route with the completed bridge adds 3.5 miles to the trail! That explains a lot.

We also ran into Buck 30 today, who was out doing a loop around Glacier Peak. We met him way back in May at the trout farm after Idyllwild where he had trail magic for us. He seemed a bit surprised we remembered him, but who could forget the guy who provides awesome trail magic like freshly grilled burgers and a giant tub of cheese balls!

*29 miles if you include the supposed new extra PCT miles
**I’m going to continue with Halfmile’s numbering of miles or it will complicate my record keeping and border celebration plans

New bridge over the Suiattle River