Chiang Mai : Getting up to Speed

One of the many impressive floats at the flower festival.

Right then, I have now been here a little over six weeks - wow, time has flown by!  That will be the having fun I suppose, which I certainly have been, school is great, but still leaves me plenty of free time to just chill and make use of that massive pool, or get on my bike and explore the area.  There certainly is a lot to see around here, not just in the city itself but the surrounding country too, mountains, rivers and waterfalls of course, and indeed not a few temples.  I will definitely do a 'things to look at around Chiang Mai' post at some point.

There always seems to be something going on around here too - often many things at once in fact.  Just since the start of February we've had the wonderful flower festival, the Jai Thep music festival (a proper festival in a field with camping and even mud!), various celebrations of the Chinese New Year - it is the year of the doge, sorry dog now.  And barely a day goes by without one or other of the mall carparks near my condo being taken over by some sort of event, generally a mix of live music and open-air dining...

There was more than just the flowers.

So how is the language learning going?  Well - this is a very odd language from a Western perspective.  Many of the concepts we're used to are simply absent, there are no tenses, no cases, no declining of verbs at all, no gendered nouns, no adjectival agreement, no plurals even.  The same words are used for object and subject pronouns, or as possessives - not exactly articles, there are, again, no articles.  Even the idea of a distinction between verb, noun and adjective isn't really here... take the (very important) word 'sanuk', I can say 'Chiang Mai sanuk' - Chiang Mai is fun.  But also, 'pom sanuk tii Chiang Mai' - I have fun in Chiang Mai.  But that isn't to say there is no grammar at all... indeed in many ways the language is quite rigid, often a strict word order has to be adhered to, or there are rules along the lines of, you have to specify something, for instance, you cannot simply answer a question with 'it depends', but rather you must say 'it depends on '.

Jai Thep music festival.

I begin to get the feeling that it is a mistake to assume that because Thai lacks so many familiar grammatical elements, it must be simple - rather the complexity lies elsewhere.  One thing we've begun to touch on is the idea of 'classifiers' - as I say, Thai lacks plurals, but, if you are going to refer to a number of things, you can't simply say number - thing.  Rather the structure goes number - thing - classifier, for instance to say four chilli peppers I would say 'prik sii met' where 'met' is the classifier.  Apparently there are at least six hundred of these... not really looking forward to trying to remember lots of them, not least given they really don't add any useful information to what you are saying.  But by all accounts if you miss them out it is going to make it less likely that the locals will understand you...

Wat Haripunchai in Lamphun.

Given I'm getting around by bicycle, another thing I'm having to get to grips with is Thai traffic which is... interesting.  This country does not have a great reputation for driving, in fact statistically it ranks as one of the worst places in the world for road deaths, and honestly you can see why.  There are for sure plenty of people here who can drive, but there are also a lot who are really quite bad - indicators and indeed all lights are optional, people will drive on the wrong side of the road, and giving way is just not a thing - they do paint zebra crossings on the roads here, and you will sometimes see tourists standing folornly at the edge of one as cars stream by.  I guess a corollary of the 'no giving way' thing is the behaviour that I'm pretty confident is causing all those deaths, a very Thai thing which is to simply pull out into moving traffic without looking, the particular style in fact is to pull out, or away from the kerb, and then dawdle along for a few seconds doing, well, I am really not sure what.

At the Queen Chamadevi monument.

In fact though, on a bicycle, none of this is too bad.  Other people may not look before pulling out but I sure do, and I am also aware that they are going to do that... and there are plenty of upsides to riding here too.  The roads are generally very good, and everybody drives pretty damn slowly, in fact on my bike I am often one of the faster vehicles around, indeed I had to get used to cars sitting behind me, not in frustration as they would be back home, but simply because they are quite happy to drive at the same speed as me.  Road rage is just not a thing here at all, Thai culture massively frowns on both public display of emotion, particularly anger, and also criticising other people in any way.  So unlike back in England I don't get passing drivers yelling at me, and I just don't have to worry about some angry driver deciding to attack me for having the temerity to overtake him... bottom line then, I do feel pretty safe here.

Photos to go with this post can be found here

Moving to Chiang Mai

Doing the tourist thing at Chiang Mai's biggest temple,
 Wat Chedi Luang.  It means, 'Big Chedi Temple'

OK, time for a different sort of adventure, I am not sure this counts as travelling, although I am certainly going to be a long way from England, just not really moving much - I guess, I want to keep the blog updated, and I'm not going to start a new 'not travels with Timmy'!  Anyway, the plan is to spend six months in the same place, honestly I am still a bit tired of the whole moving about thing, so, I wanted somewhere warm, and somewhere I knew I would like, so out of the various places I have been over the last few years I picked Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Obviously a big advantage here is that it is a pretty cheap place to live, I should be able to rent a flat to live in, and also I can sign up for a language class - I really enjoyed doing that in Tenerife, but could only afford a few weeks of lessons there, whereas in Thailand I can study for the whole six months.

The Three Kings Monument at the heart of the city.
The building behind is the City Arts and Cultural Centre.

In fact, if I'm going to be in Thailand for that long a time, studying the language is a good idea as it makes it easier to get a visa.  With a bit of googling I find a school, who promise to deal with the immigration department for me, they email me a somewhat dubious looking form that seems to have originally been entirely in Thai, but has then had English translations jammed in resulting in a mess of a format.  Still I fill it in, send them various scanned images, and also a bank transfer of around £500, which apparently will cover the whole six months of lessons.  I can't help but wonder if this is some kind of scam, will I see anything for my money?  Still, a large wad of documents, covered in various stamps, arrives by Fedex a couple of weeks later, and on taking this to the Thai embassy in London they happily give me a visa - much easier than the process I went through with the Americans I must say.

By the massive communal pool at my new home.

Largely for price reasons, I fly out to Thailand on New Year's Eve, it turns out to be quite a fun way to spend the day, not least because for much of the way I'm on the top deck of a rather awesome Airbus A380 - I think my seat is economy class, but it seems more luxurious that what you would get in business class on some smaller planes.  Nice not to have any hassle regarding a return flight too - I was hoping to be able to show my visa at checkin and so avoid this, but if need be I was prepared to buy a full price return ticket, with a view to then cancelling it.  But in fact nobody mentions any such requirement, hmmm.  The A380 takes me as far as Doha, with much food provided on the way, pretty good for airline food too, and then after a brief stop a second flight goes straight to Chiang Mai, good not to have to go via Bangkok.

Ceremonial bell at Wat Phan Thao.

I have a few days booked in a hotel, I am expecting to have to extend this a little to give me time to sort out somewhere more permanent - in fact, the only delay in moving into a rented condo comes from the time taken to transfer the deposit from my UK bank, if I'd wanted to pay in cash I could have moved in pretty much at once.  Condo suggests something luxurious, in fact it is basically a one bed flat, not much bigger than my hotel room - on the other hand the communal facilities are excellent, lots of comfy, shaded seating areas complete with wifi, a gym, and a truly vast pool.  There is a rather awesome shopping mall next door, in addition to many hi-so (as they say here) shops and restaurants there is an iMax cinema and even an ice rink!  Only real downside is I am a couple of miles out from the centre of town, but I make a virtue of this by buying a bicycle - from a Decathlon no less, this is for sure a properly civilised place.  I look forward to riding out into the country on my days off from school.

Back to school!

Speaking of which, the school turns out to genuinely exist, and indeed seems very professional - they actually have their own series of textbooks, some eighteen in all, written in house.  I'm in a small group of four to five people, who all seem nice, as does our teacher who is very patient with our intial attempts to speak Thai, which seems to be something of a paradoxical language, really hard to grasp in some respects but absurdly simple in others.  I will write more about the language in the future I am sure, but I can tell pretty much from the start that I am going to struggle with the tone thing - there are five different tones, flat, high, low, falling and rising, and thus far I'm not really able to remember which tone the words should have, let alone correctly pronounce them.  Still, all good fun so far, I think I am going to enjoy it here...

Photos to go with this post can be found here

Pacific Crest Trail : Review

Enjoying myself in southern California.

So, it has now been a few months since I finished the PCT, and the blog has been quiet - for most of that time I didn't do anything very exciting, some time back in England visiting friends and family, a few weeks R and R in Tenerife, then back to the UK for Christmas, all good fun and that rest and relaxation was very much needed.  But there will be more adventure, and more blogging about it, before that though I really need to do a review of the Pacific Crest Trail, here that is then.  I guess I've been putting off doing it in the hopes of getting my thoughts in order regarding what was truly an amazing journey, and also to be honest because whenever I thought of writing a review I knew it wasn't going to be entirely positive, still, it is what it is.

Even the snow was fun at first.

What an adventure then, truly an utterly insane experience, way beyond anything I imagined.  It ran the gamut of emotions, excitement, wonder, the sheer good fun of a long walk in beautiful surroundings, but also misery, stark terror, and the mounting frustration of dealing with the bizarrely tyrannical federal bureaucracy that reigns over the United States.  Strange to recall that I thought it would just be a long walk, and indeed that during the first few days in the desert, I was thinking it would if anything not be much of a challenge.  Those days, and indeed the whole desert section, up to Kennedy Meadows, were great, a fine, carefree walk.

Not so much fun now.

Of course the Sierras brought the whole thing crashing down, trying to get through the snow at a sufficient pace, both to avoid running out of food and to get to Oregon in time for the eclipse, became more and more unpleasant as time went by.  Not merely the constant hard physical work, but more the continual worry that I would run out of food, or injure myself or worse - and lets not mistake this, people did get injured, several people died this year in fact, and it could have been me.  Yes I made it through, but after that I was playing catch up pretty much all the way to Detroit, and while it wasn't too bad once I left the snow behind, the days were always just a bit too long.  The eclipse itself was pretty awesome and I'm glad I was there for it, and yes, after that there was some good walking and I was able to slow down, has to be said that the fat ranger and his ticket still leave a nasty taste in the mouth though.

Seriously, look how thin I am here.

The rangers and other uniformed types weren't the only annoyances either, another issue was just how expensive America is.  It became increasingly wearing that not only could I not really afford to stay in motels, I couldn't even afford to stay in campsites - to be sure, in large part because nowhere in the country seems to be set up for a single hiker with a tent on his back, this did not however make me feel better.  At least after I worked out how to order food from Walmart I was able to eat reasonably cheaply.  One more complaint, and I hate to say this but it is true, some of the people I was sharing the trail with - which was a lot of people - were simply kind of annoying.  Specifically the young Americans tended to be loud, immature, and were treating the whole thing as a some sort of extended party - I mean, great for them I am sure.  But as I was struggling along with my pack weighed down by a heavy tent and seven days of food, I really did not need a bunch of kids passing me, with their tiny packs, almost weightless and hugely expensive gear, yelling to each other about what they did in the last town they hitched to, or how they were 'crushing' the miles, or where the next package from their mother was going to be waiting for them.

I did at least get to see a total eclipse, and it was pretty cool.

So yeah, I did enjoy a lot of the trip, the scenery was often breathtaking and for sure I have to feel proud of the achievement.  But given I was looking forward to doing this for years, perhaps it was not quite as awesome as I'd hoped, there were just too many bad things that still stick in the memory.  I don't exactly regret doing it, but honestly if I could go back in time and advise myself, I think I would say, do something different.  While there may not be a chance to see an eclipse as part of a PCT through hike again in my lifetime, nonetheless, maybe waiting for a year with less snow would have been the thing to do.  And for this year, maybe one of the other American long trails, though honestly America is simply not very nice in many ways, so perhaps somewhere else in the world.  Frankly, having done two 'official' long distance trails, I am wondering if a better idea would not be to come up with my own route, as I have of course done for shorter trips.  It would make for a less crowded trail, but also both the long trails I've done have suffered seriously from an insistence on keeping to 'wilderness'.  Unimproved forest is all well and good, but I'm not sure about walking through it for thousands of miles, honestly I prefer to walk a moor, or a grazed meadow or hilltop, with grass underfoot and a view unencumbered by trees.  Perhaps I simply want to stick to the old world rather than the new?

St. Johns, Canada - civilisation!

I can at least say that while this was a bad year to do the PCT, or perhaps it just wasn't the trail for me after all, I did at least do a good job of it, I kept walking, and the organisational side held up pretty well too.  My gear, in particular boots, held up well - Decathlon, I love you so much.  I guess I really should have sorted out the Canada permit before flying to LA but there is always something.  As it turns out I was very glad to have managed to get that done by the end of the walk, not because I needed it, of course nobody so much as looked at it, but because otherwise I would have changed plans and gone to Seattle - which might be nice I guess, but certainly Vancouver was a lovely place, well worth a visit, as was St. Johns on the other side of the country, which I spent a day at on the way back to London.  So, there was that at least, maybe not worth the trials of the massive walk but a point in favour of the whole thing.  But anyway - I got through it all somehow, in one piece even, and now, as has been said, for something completely different.

Photos from my time in Canada can be found here

Pacific Crest Trail : Stehekin to Manning Park

Miles this section : 81
Miles completed : 2650

Many fish in the Stehekin.

Stehekin isn't actually on the trail, indeed it is fully eleven miles away along a little used road, which actually has a regular bus service, I guess intended for the use of tourists arriving in town via the passenger ferry, and as you'd expect popular with hikers.  But I have got this far on my own two feet, I'm not going to get into a vehicle now, so eleven miles of walking it is.  In fact I rather enjoy the road walk, even with the resurfacing work that is going on...  It runs through a deep gorge alongside the fish filled Stehekin River, the riverside makes a nice place to stop for lunch, and I guess those fish are attracting predators, as while I'm eating a Bald Eagle flies directly overhead!

Some fine walking in this last section.

I get back onto the trail, thankfully the weather has turned dry again, quite sunny in fact, which isn't without potential issues - I nearly step on a rattlesnake sunning itself on the path at one point, did not expect them so far north.  I reach the campsite that the rangers gave me a permit for, this is in a national park, hence all the regulations I guess.  They really didn't want to give me a permit for this site, no idea why as it is empty, at least until some more hikers join me - they have a permit for a different site, but somehow the world does not end.  I look at the wire from which I'm supposed to hang my food, I think if I spent ages removing all the guy ropes from my tent, tying them together etc. I might produce something that would maybe result in a hungry and frustrated bear lurking around the campsite.  I don't bother, but of course now I worry about rangers for much of the night.

Well, in the event I am troubled by neither rangers nor bears, but after a less than great night's sleep I have a long climb to do, up to seven thousand feet, although it's an easy enough grade so I make steady progress.  There are some last mountain passes to go through, with proper wilderness names such as Cutthroat, Granite and Glacier, they are most scenic, kind of cold camping up among them mind you - I imagine it is getting cold for the wildlife too, as at one point as I'm getting to sleep I hear some sort of critter running around between my tent inner and flysheet.

A brief escape from the clouds on the last day.

Some excitement to liven up the last few miles, a couple of hikers just ahead of me have found a gun on trail!  It's loaded with birdshot, though there are other types of ammo, plus the owner's bag and phone nearby - they carry it off to the nearest road hoping to find somebody to give it to.  I'm into the last fifty miles now, walking under blue skies to Harts Pass, where the trail crosses the last road before Canada - I did plan to camp here, but there is no water and they want eight dollars!  And yes, there is some kind of ranger / guard present to enforce this, and presumably keep a watch out for invading Canadians.

Woohoo!

One last day or so and I reach the end of the trail, something of an anticlimax of course, the country on the other side of the border looks much the same, though there is a strip of cut forest running off up the hills to either side, and a couple of monuments.  I'd hoped for a moment of quiet contemplation here, but of course there is a steady stream of hikers turning up, and enjoying celebratory drinks or indeed other substances.  Well, still another nine miles to go until I can rest, but it doesn't take long, and on reaching the road the small resort of Manning Park has all I need - yes, there is burger, beer, and somewhere to sit while I wait for the (2am!) bus to Vancouver.  Oh thank goodness, it is over at last.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Pacific Crest Trail : Indian Pass to Stehekin

Miles this section : 74
Miles completed : 2569

A cold morning after a snowy night, by Mica Lake.

Indian Pass isn't any kind of rest or resupply stop, just a random gap in the hills, but it seemed like a good place to end the last entry - obviously, not the smartest place to camp though.  Believe it or not, I am now not in a particularly good mood, really not feeling the whole trail thing, but still there are one hundred and eighty miles to go, I had best get on with it, not least while walking to Canada may be hard work, it is considerably simpler than trying to figure out an alternative in this misbegotten country with its near-total lack of public transport.

Not the best weather, though a rainbow is some consolation.

Of course, now I've been penalised for potentially starting a wildfire in this 'tinder dry' country, it is raining, a grey drizzle that matches my mood pretty well.  This turns to snow higher up, not too heavy and indeed it doesn't get me wet the way the rain does, but I guess it keeps going all night, given that I wake up to find my tent covered by snow.  It makes for a cold early morning walk, but oddly this cheers me up a bit - maybe it's a reminder of cold, damp walking back home, or maybe is because I can cope with this, whereas others are clearly struggling.

It rains on and off for days, each day my kit gets a little damper from the water I unavoidably bring into the tent, and it becomes harder and harder to stay warm at night.  There is at least dramatic mountain scenery to enjoy, and the pine forests are pretty too with the snow decorating the trees. The trail grows muddy beneath my feet, but there's not enough snow to obscure it - yet...

The beautiful Stehekin Valley.

Well, I make it to the small tourist town of Stehekin, a charming place by Lake Chelan, indeed only accessible by a ferry over the lake, or of course by walking.  Time for my last zero day, it's nice that there is free camping, although I find it hard to be patient with the necessary form filling (one for each day!) and the patronising rangers - I need a permit for my planned campsite a few miles along the trail too, this comes with instructions as to how I absolutely must camp in the right place, and also hang my food from a tree because of bears.  Apart from camping, everything here is pretty expensive, but I do manage to get some beer, a burger and some impressive pastries.  My last package is here, I sent this one using the 'retail ground' option which was at least slightly cheaper than 'priority mail', that may have been a mistake as it seems to have been used as football, my cookies are in bits and there is couscous everywhere... ah well, the hiker box comes to the rescue.

Looking across Lake Chelan from Stehekin Landing.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Pacific Crest Trail : Snoqualmie Pass to Indian Pass

Miles this section : 104
Miles completed : 2495

Dramatic Washington.

There's a long section coming up now, I leave Snoqualmie Pass after lunch, with the aim of doing fifteen miles before camping, after that I'm looking at seven full days, averaging twenty-five miles per day.  It's immediately clear that this is going to be hard, the trail consists of one gruelling slope after another, though it is worth it to walk through stunning surroundings, with views of peaceful lakes and steep sided mountains, and slopes covered by heather and bracken between the pines.  But it is slow going, I just about keep to the plan, but on each of the first two nights out I don't reach camp until around 8pm - which is well after sunset now, there's just about enough light to put up the tent.

Spectacle Lake.

I decide to take an extra day getting to the next resupply stop, there's no sense spoiling this beautiful section rushing it and I am not really pressed for time - I guess at some point the weather is going to turn, but even if it does, one more day of cold and damp won't be the end of the world.  This does mean I need a little bit more food, but that's OK, next day the trail goes through Stevens Pass, yet another small ski resort - I certainly wouldn't be able to resupply here, but I get a decent lunch from their snack bar, that and some candy, plus hiker box pickings is good for one day of food.  They also have wifi, just about, I check my email, and wonder of wonders I have my Canada permit.  A good thing too, latest news is that the road I'd have needed hitch along towards Seattle, as an alternative to walking into Canada, is shut due to fire.

Heading up to a high pass.

The going seems easier after Stevens pass, and it is nice to no longer have such long miles to do, I can take decent breaks, and if I want to stop for ten minutes to pick some huckleberries there is nothing to stop me.  It is still pretty smoky, I can see the nearby peaks but the view is hazy, but I must be getting away from the fires now surely - it is certainly getting quite cold, skies are cloudy, but still the rain holds off.  I'm not doing nearly such long days now, in fact on the second day after Stevens Pass I make camp at 6:30pm, time to make fire of my own - this turns out to be a bad idea, a fat guy in sandals turns up and says there is a state wide fire ban, well OK, I will put it out - he then says he is going to give me a ticket and I realise he is a ranger, the ticket is for $230!  Really not what I need with the budget already stretched, well, screw him, screw the US forest service, and indeed screw this dystopian country.  For sure, I've had a lot of good times here, but there are also plenty of things I am now heartily sick of - the often dubious food, the towns built for cars rather than people, and most of all the way I just can't get away from people in uniforms telling me what to do, even out here in the supposed wilderness.  Land of the free my ass, as they say here.

Stevens Pass ski resort.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

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.