Day 115

Mile 2256.4 to mile 2287.4

PCT Miles: 31.0 (49.6km)

Total Miles: 2287.4 (3659.8km)

We’re back to magnificent mountain views!

I left camp a bit before 6am, before the other people. I really enjoy — and have been enjoying — to hike alone.

The morning was tough with mosquitoes but before noon the situation had improved. It’s really tough to hike uphill on a warm day wearing your rain clothes against the mosquitoes.

Now I understand why the trail angels yesterday insisted on driving us one more hour so we could hike through the Goat Rocks. The views were absolutely amazing and I could also hike through one of the best named parts of the PCT. It’s this narrow path on a ridge where you have (beautiful) cliffs on both sides. It’s called the Knife’s Edge 🔪.

The main characteristic of the PCT in Washignton are the steep ascends and descents. I totally felt that today. I went up and down on two passes today and that was an extreme exercise for my thighs and knees. At least there’s no significant amount of snow (and I don’t think there will be any for the rest of the trail).

When I was literally seconds away from my campsite I heard something moving in the woods a bit ahead of me. I was sure it was a hiker that was camping at the same spot. Then it started to cross the trail three meters in front of me, completely unaware of my presence. It was a bear. A young, small beautiful brown-colored bear.

I was absolutely in shock. That’s what you always hear about black bears: they’re only a threat if you stand between a mom and her cubs. The bear in front of me was definitely not a grown-up. Besides, differently from California, in Washington they also have grizzly bears, known to be much more aggressive towards humans than black bears (which, despite what the name might suggest, can be black or brown colored).

For a moment I forgot that there was a bear right in front of me and looked around to see if I could spot another bear, the mom. At this moment the young bear noticed me and in a split second ran uphill, away from me and from the campsite. The poor bear ran so fast that you could hear and feel the ground trembling when he stomped away.

I waited a few seconds to see if there would be a follow up event, but I couldn’t hear or see anything atypical. I walked 10 more steps and I was at the campsite. There was one other tent there. When the girl saw me from inside her tent she asked me: “did you hear that? I think it might have been a deer running away”. “Yeah” — I replied — “I think so too”.