We hiked this 100 mile section of the PCT northbound over 8 days in early September...and we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty and solitude. We had heard about the many clearcuts, powerlines, burn areas and forest roads, but instead, it was the mountain views, fall foliage and beautiful lakes and streams that we'll most remember about the trip.
For resources, we used FarOut, Tami Asar's book on the PCT in Washington and the Halfmile pages. These were all useful to determine current water availability (several long 8-12 mile water carrys) and campsites. With a pace of 8-15 miles/day, we stayed at the following seven camps: Creek Camp, Dewey Lake (great swim), Bouillon Trail (unplanned), Camp Ulrich (crowded), Blowout Mt Trail (missed desired Camp 5), Camp 11, Mirror Lake (another great swim).
Very few people out on the trail...mostly the tail end of PCT thru-hikers, some of whom shared interesting insights from their long journey (we ignored those who splayed themselves across the trail smoking pot). We didn't see much wildlife...some pikas, marmots and two deer.
We saw two examples of trail magic...a guy working out of his truck with a full-on multi-course offering to thru-hikers...and a cooler with cold Rainier beers in the Ulrich Cabin. Nice!
Cell service available every few days. Some steep ledges (eyes on trail!) Some wildfire haze. Couple archery hunters (one of whom kindly offered water during our long H2O carry day). Next to no bugs. Lots of berries and mushrooms.
It was very hard to find good trees for food hangs (limbs too short or too high or too low)...we wished we had brought our bulky/heavy but effective bear bins. No issues with critters getting into food, though chipmunks were definitely around at a few campsites.
Trail in good condition (thanks crews) and was generally a reasonable grade.
It was a great fall adventure and we felt this section of the trail exceeded our expectations for pretty views and chance to immerse ourselves in nature.
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