Start point
Tentsites at mile 2277.3
End point
White Pass (Kracker Barrel general store), mile 2295.9
Miles hiked
18.6 trail miles, 0.6 mile road walk
Wilderness area
Snoqualmie National Forest
Goat Rocks Wilderness
Gifford Pinchot National Forest
People I met
The Codgers
Sticks
A bunch of others
The day on trail
It was such a misty night! The morning was gorgeous, as they usually are after nights like that. The mist refracts the sunlight and gives it a super beautiful, ethereal quality.
I ate a quick breakfast because I wanted to get to town earlier rather than later. I also didn’t want to tempt the mice with my food. You never know if they’re going to have a moment of blind boldness.
My tent was fairly dry, but the fly was damp, as was my quilt. I put the fly outside my pack, in the elastics, so it would dry a little more. When I stop for lunch, I’ll lay everything out. It’ll dry quickly in the sun.
It’s off to a stunning start, though!
Did you see the mountain in the second photo?
It’s Tahoma!
There was one snowy area. It wasn’t too bad. Just frozen over. But the dirt gave enough traction.
On my way up, I met a guy who came out here a lot. He told me the edge isn’t as scary or narrow as the name implies. He asked if I could take a couple photos of him and his girlfriend, of course I said yes. I asked him if he could take some of me. He was more than happy to.
I continued on. The trail forked, one side the official route and the other a route for stock animals. I took the official route. Both seemed fairly sketchy. What won the official was the comments on FarOut saying that the stock route wasn’t any less sketchy and slightly overgrown.
The views were absurd.
But the trail soon turned incredibly sketchy.
It was steep and crumbly. And this was only where I felt stable enough to take a photo. It got significantly worse, with no exposed dirt layer under the rock. It was just shifting, unsteady, settling rocks.
There were two guys booking it along, seemingly unaware of how this could so quickly devolve. I made my way aside so they could pass, which they did.
Back on my way, I took a moment to regroup.
“Minstrel, baby, you’re smart. You can figure this out.
“You have tools. What tools do you have?
“I have trekking poles.
“Okay, let’s use those.”
And then I realized I could use my trekking poles to settle the rocks down before I stepped on them.
It worked beautifully.
Soon I got to the scariest part of the trail for the day. There was a 30’ snow bank that had unfrozen, refrozen, unfrozen, and refrozen who knows how many times. It was slick. There was no really boot track because of the weather swings. It was steep without any handholds or footholds.
It was a 100% no-fall zone. If you fell, that could be it. Not to mention I had sent my crampons and ice axe home — if they would’ve even done any good.
The two guys in front of me were slowed down and I caught up to them. They both had their trekking poles fastened to their packs. The effective leader of the duo had slipped on the ice and was on his knees trying to figure out how to get up. The second guy, the one immediately in front of me, was trying to figure out how to turn around to reassess.
I got behind the second guy and asked if he wanted me to get his poles off his pack for him.
“Oh, uh…” he hesitated
“That sounds like a ‘yes,’ bro,” I said.
“Thanks.”
“No problem, just hold still,” I said.
At that moment, his friend was trying to get up and said “Hey, you should get your poles.”
“I’m working on it,” he replied.
The first guy somehow made it across. The second was a lot steadier. I asked if they could wait for me to cross, just in case. They were more than happy to.
After we all got across, I took off and they continued on.
Soon I got to look over the Knife’s Edge. A walk along a mountain ridge.
I can’t believe I’m here. Crossing log bridges, crossing grate bridges, traversing trail with crumbling cliff sides, and now this. Something I’d feared before trail and now…I’m excited.
The descent down to it rejoined where the stock trail ended.
Did I mention I’m excited?
There was one spot that was a little narrow.
The rest was just so fun though. And it was so beautiful!
There was a rock outcropping on my left, where clouds were coming up and over, swirling around me.
It was one of the most magical moments of my existence.
And I got to hike more in the mist.
Too soon, it opened up to some forest and I saw grouse. They’re little forest chickens whose male mating calls sound like weird grunting. They’re fast, but I was able to get a photo of one of the females.
And then it went back up to ridge.
I was just drinking this up. It was everything I never thought of dreaming of.
There was a bunch of mushrooms.
A vertebra from some animal, probably a deer.
And a batch of other cool fungus.
I saw some weird young pine sprouts growing inside a cracked tree. On the edge of a splintered board was a leaf. Maybe a bird had nested or perched. There are so many stories out here of animals’ daily lives.
Onward was the junction to Shoe Lake.
And then there was a series of switchbacks. I ran into my Korean friend from the beginning of the trail now going by Sherpa, Baby Spice, and Ziplock. Ziplock and Spice were hanging out, catching their breath.
It came to a vista over a valley.
Everyone was congregating, enjoying the views that today kept giving us. They took a photo of me in front of it.
Most of us continued down, Sherpa was cutting trail, going straight down and bypassing switchbacks. I tried to ask him not to, but the language barrier made that impossible.
I loved this area though.
I came to a couple Goat Rocks Wilderness signs, a sad reminder that this area was finite and I’d be out of it soon.
All too soon I got to the trailhead and road crossing. There’s a small road stop, called White Pass Kracker Barrel. It has a gas station with full resupply and hot food for hikers (and, you know, travelers). Past that is a town called Packwood.
I figured I’d try to hitch to Packwood, where there was better food, while walking to Kracker Barrel (not Cracker Barrel).
The cars were zooming by and the shoulder was miserable. Semis and trucks just gave so little space. It was garbage.
After a miserable 0.6 miles, I got to White Pass Kracker Barrel. There was wifi without cell service. I got in right after they stopped making pizzas (okay, they have a pizza oven??). I asked if they could sneak one more in and they agreed to, as long as I didn’t tell anyone it went in late.
I bought some other foods. One was a Knorr pasta side. In order to hang them up for display, the store punched holes in the packages. Only the holes they punched weren’t just in the flat seams — they crossed over into the actual bags, opening them up and letting the content spill if you turned them upside down.
I asked if they would swap my pasta sides, and they reluctantly agreed to.
After getting my pizza, I headed outside, to the back, where the hikers were. I met a guy, whose father came in with a bunch of trays of Chinese food.
I had a little of it, but I had my pizza and a lot of the dishes were pork.
Soon Slaphappy and Sherpa rolled in. It was amazing to see Slaphappy. Sherpa settled in and got food from some people. I gave Slaphappy a slice of pizza and he got some food, too. We started catching up.
Apparently, at the area with the slick, frozen ice, he fell. He was able to grab a single rock and work his way back up.
That area was terrifying.
We caught up with other hikers. There was a young lady, Stick, who share stories with us. And we met the Codgers, a band of older men who were minor YouTube celebrities. I’d heard I was near them, and it was kind of cool to meet them, even though I’d never seen a video of theirs.
I took a moment to give my filter a really, really thorough backwash.
There was a camping area behind the store. We went to it well after hiker midnight. There was a spot with rumored cell service, but I couldn’t find it. And at this point, we were well outside the wifi zone.
I set up my tent, closeish to Slaphappy, and we turned in. I can’t believe how much I saw today.