Pacific Crest Trail : White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass

Miles this section : 99
Miles completed : 2391

Leaving the trail at the Highway 410 crossing.

White Pass is little more than a gas station, there is a small ski resort, but only the hotel is open - I do need a rest though, I ask about a room, they want $120... OK, I plan to camp nearby in the woods, but then my trail buddy Paul turns up, he has booked a room, he needs the comfort as he has broken two bones in his foot!  He says I can have a bunk bed in his room, I have no cash to give him but I buy him some beer and pay his box holding fee which seems fair - the bunk is pretty small, nice to have a bed though.  My Walmart stuff is here, this is good, there is a lot of food which should get me to the next stop, and indeed cookies for now - of course I also find time to drink plenty of beer, and the gas station market provides surprisingly good pizza, although I guess I am no longer starving as I don't manage to eat it all!  Well, only fair to give Paul a slice or two.  The hotel has a warm pool, this is a pleasant touch, must be nice after a day of skiing - one day I must come to US and ski...

I spend the morning working out a detour around this latest fire closure, it looks OK, mainly on trails.  Then after a 'hot pocket' for lunch I head off, thirty miles of trail are open at least, I walk thirteen or so, the route is flat and easy, and it's not too smoky at ground level, though sun is red throughout the afternoon.  It rises red the next morning too, visibility is perhaps half a mile, I walk along in a little bubble of landscape surrounded by grey.  I reach the trail closure, at the Highway 410 crossing point, the road is shut too but there's no problem with walking it for three miles west to a junction, where I meet some friendly security guys, they give me gatorade and cookies, and say I can walk north, and should be OK to camp by the road.  Then a ranger drives up, he is not so friendly, I ask about trail alternatives to the road - my map shows a trail parallel to the highway, just the other side of a river, it has to be better walking - he tersely says 'all trails are closed'.

The appropriately named White River, at its confluence with the Greenwater.

OK, I walk four miles or so on the road, it's getting late so when I reach a trailhead I'm thinking that while the trail is of course closed, maybe there'll be a place to camp?  I don't see a flat spot, although sat by a tree there is a full can of... sparkling water.  That is so disappointing that I leave it sat there, then find a decent camp spot on the other side of the road - but that can is nagging me, I hate to leave stuff, and anything I can drink without having to filter is good.  So I go back for it, then that ranger turns up... he tells me there is no camping here, I have to walk to the Rainier National Park boundary, some four miles away!  I am not happy, I up my pace to pretty much top speed, nearly 4mph, but still it is dark when I get there.  Twice rangers driving by pull over to tell me things are closed, one says I can't camp in the forest land, which is what is on the other side of the boundary, either, argh.  He keeps saying 'you can't get back to the trail'.  When I do finally reach the boundary, there is a police officer there!  But he shows me to a flat bit of forest away from the road where I can pitch the tent, and even gives me cookies.  My faith in humanity, and in particular the uniformed bits of it, is restored...

Walking the railway line north of Enumclaw.

I have little choice now but to walk lots of Highway 410, though I do manage a brief escape onto the White River Trail, running parallel to the road, I'm sure it should be closed but there are no signs, whatever.  The highway is a nice road to walk at least, this is the Mather Memorial Highway, named for the USA's first head of National Parks, there are fine views of the river - which is indeed white, due to the water containing 'glacial flour', small particles of rock eroded from the slopes of Mount Rainier.  I escape the highway again for a few more miles, on a private road, for a while this is a pleasant green lane, then a gravel track.  Then into the small town of Enumclaw where I get fish and chips for lunch, and check my email to find that the Canada permit has been refused yet again, grrrr.  OK, I find a copy shop and scan my US visa, the latest thing the Canadian bureaucracy have decided they want.  Then the plan is to head out of town on an old railroad - which I do for just a few miles, after which the route is overgrown and impassable, instead I walk an actual railroad for a while, then just minor roads, which seem busier than the highway was.  Rather shockingly it rains - hopefully this will put the fires out.

The John Wayne Pioneer Trail, also known as the Iron Horse Trail.

There's yet more road the next day, slightly less busy at least, it being a Sunday, and also I seem to be heading to a dead end, the way north blocked by the Cedar river - my plan to cross this on the abandoned railroad is a washout, and the only other way across is a forest road, this turns out to be blocked by a large, secure looking gate with intercom, cameras and so on - signs say something about this being the 'Seattle watershed'?  Of course, climbing the fence to one side and then walking through the 'secure area' to get over the river would be illegal, bad and wrong, so I absolutely don't do it at all.  Anyway... eventually I find myself at the trailhead for the 'John Wayne Pioneer Trail', yes this is a genuine trail, in fact it is an old railway line so easy walking, and it really is very good to be off the road.  I get some miles along it and find a spot to camp, then have an easy morning morning walk to my next rest stop, Snoqualmie Pass, the air is very smoky indeed and I worry that the pass will be evacuated but thankfully not.  I splash out on a motel, maybe my last chance to do so in the USA, and otherwise it is surprisingly cheap here at what is essentially another ski resort - I get pizza and some beer for not much money at all.  I make good use of the motel room with a twenty-four hour rest, opening my last Walmart packages to reveal a great deal of cookies, this is good.  And the smoke is gone in the morning, fingers crossed I can get to Canada without further fire closures.

Photos to go with this post can be found here and here.