My 11yo and I hiked Holden Village to High Bridge over four days. Camped at Hart Lake (4 mile day), an unnamed PCT campsite (8 mile day), and Swamp Creek Camp (9 mile day), then caught the bus to Stehekin at High Bridge (8 mile day).
The trail was pretty overgrown between Hart Lake and Lyman Lake, and for a little while after Lyman Lake. No real difficulty getting through, but it was a little hard to see the trail in some places.
Cloudy Pass still had a pretty hefty snowfield on 8/6, but the trail had been clear of snow for a week or so.
After Cloudy Pass, we made a mistake. There was a sign for PCT North (to the right) or Hiker Shortcut (to the left). We were headed for PCT North, but every map I had seen (including Green Trails) showed the leftward route as the main or only trail. We played it "safe" and went left, adding a couple miles and some elevation gain to our trip.
There were some bugs on the whole route. They were bad on our second night, in a single-tent campsite three miles down the PCT from Cloudy Pass. They were nightmarish in the area of the PCT near Hemlock Camp and Cedar Camp. Thankfully, they weren't as bad at Swamp Creek Camp, but we were pretty bitten by the end.
We were early for our 2PM reserved bus from High Bridge to Stehekin Landing. Luckily, the Stehekin Ranch bus showed up around 1PM and took us on board for a voluntary donation.
Wonderful trip! The predicted heat wave wasn't as bad as predicted, and the views were spectacular through the whole trip.
Comments