White Pass / Kracker Barrel / Packwood
Since hiking south from Snoqualime the trail has changed so much - from rocky terrain and ridges to soft forest. Our feet have been happy about that and we’ve been able to consistently hike 20 miles/day with the easier terrain!
Every day of this 98 mile stretch has been different. We started with a ride by Kirsten to the trailhead and we packed a nice dinner sandwich for that night.
The next two days were spent hiking in a cloud of fog in dirt road land when we finally emerged and were able to stay at the Mike Ulrich’s cabin.
The Mike Ulrich cabin might be the only cabin on the trail and we were able to stay there for one night since it was placed exactly at a 20 mile day for us. In the cabin we had our first taste of Trail Magic from Jeff and Angela, Greenwater WA who had left a cooler with some snacks and drinks for the hikers.
We hiked through a burned forest in the Norse Peak Wilderness where we met Alan, who gifted us some cashew balls because he had too many snacks. The days started to get sunnier as we made our way towards Mt Rainier National Park.
With the temperature increase and the snowmelt we’ve been finding a lot more mosquitoes and hiking through lake and marsh land hasn’t been pleasant. Views are still beautiful though!
On this section we started meeting a lot of “Nobos” (aka people hiking the PCT northbound) and we’ve been chatting to some of them. Today we made it to Kracker Barrel in White Pass, a legendary stop for hikers! Then, we hitched into Packwood for a night in a bed and we enjoyed dinner with Patti and Dave 😊
And this is goodnight now!!
PS: we scheduled the last few posts after Seattle - sorry for the spam!!
