Day 1. PCT 4.2 miles + 2.0 town miles


Surprise! We bought our very first home in Leavenworth, WA!!



Just kidding... this is our beautiful AirBnb we stayed in last night! We woke up at 7:00 and got a continental breakfast delivered to our door at 8:00am. Yes! :) 


Going through the food we stashed in Daveys truck during the Enchantments

We got all packed up and left around 10:00am to walk into town. All the homes in Leavenworth are pleasant and it seems like such a nice place to live! We went back to Der Sportsmann (for the 3rd time) so I could buy some Superfeet insoles. Claire and I had them on the PCT for extra support in our shoes and I can tell they’d help after I went without them in the Enchantments.
 

HUGE sunflowers on the way into town


Oh yeah!!


My babe bought me Starbucks :)

We walked a mile over to Dans food market and bought a lot more yummy foods! We are estimating this leg to take us around 5 days but have probably 7 days worth of food! Hahaha. The cashier asked us where we were headed and said we would have no trouble hitching but if she saw us out there at 1pm she’d give us a ride! Everyone is so nice! We also talked to a cool lady outside about life and adventures. After we were all done in town we walked back about a mile towards the West while sticking out our thumbs.


A hitchin’ Pro

Ironically, someone walking behind us on the sidewalk offered to give us a ride! We walked with her and two others (and a super cute doggo) to their truck and hopped in the back!




Views from a truck bed...

They were able to take us 15 miles (just about halfway). They dropped us off at a rest area. A perfect place to keep hitching! After about 15 mins of having people tell us they were headed East instead of West, we walked down to the highway to heighten our chances, and got a ride in about a minute!


Claire in her new midlayer! 

We got a ride from a really cool dude who took us the last 15ish miles and dropped us off at Stevens Pass. When we were approaching, we were slightly disheartened... Rain!! That wasn’t in the forecast! We walked across the pedestrian bridge to the closed Ski Resort and made ourselves at home on the tables they left out. 











You can tell the resort remains very hiked friendly even though their services are unavailable. The tables left out, the open wall chargers, and one unlocked trash can for hikers to use made us happy. A super nice security guard and by and talked to us for awhile. His trial name is Whistler and he thru-hiked the PCT in 2015! We told him we were planning to wait out the rain and he told us if it got worse we could set up camp in the large covered area we were hanging out in! So nice! 


Whistler 


Claire’s new mug that replaced her large stainless steel pot. We used to nest my cooking pot into hers.


But now, our whole kitchen...


Fits perfectly...


Into my pot!! (Might seem like not a huge deal but saves weight and space, two HUGELY important things in backpacking) We’re stoked on the upgrade!

We ended up cruising for about an hour and a half, and then decided to book it up the mountain upon the weather clearing up just a tad, and the sun trying it’s hardest to breakthrough. Although it remained pretty cold and sometimes misty, we didn’t get too wet and the weather definitely added some magic to the greenery and flowers. Claire really enjoyed the climb out of the resort and I really enjoyed hiking behind her and taking way too many pictures! It’s easy to get carried away when your subject is so beautiful :)


Stevens Pass Ski Resort in the back













After reaching the top chairlift, we descended back down the other side of the mountain. Across some scree slides, under some electrical towers, and through some more mist, we decided to land at Lake Susan Jane for the night. 










Lake Susan Jane

There’s another group here with a super good doggo named Titan. He followed Claire and I around while we looked for the perfect spot to pitch our tent. We found a nice one and made some Spanish rice and refried bean burritos. The Enchantments was good practice for us to dial in our camp routines with a lot of our new gear and I think we’re nailing it! We successfully set everything up quickly and efficiently with only 1 new mosquito bite each! :)


Home for the night (can sort of see lake in background)


No hair-tie? No problem! Introducing the dread-tie..


My HUGE food bag! Claire’s is about the same size, if not a little bigger! 


Mmmmm! Rice and bean burritos! One could almost survive a whole thru-hike eating only this for dinner.. Wait, I DID in 2018!

Well, this has been way longer than I was planning, but it was exciting and a lot happened today. I’m so stoked to be back on the PCT with Claire. We make a great team, moral is high, and there’s no one I’d rather be out here spending this time on the trail with :) We only did 4.2 PCT miles but adding the 2+ On hard sidewalks with full packs that we did in town, we are ready for bed. 

Thanks for reading! 

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