Day 1: Here we go….

June 26, 2020. Methow Valley Trail 480 to Brush Creek junction with PCT

I was up and ready to go by 6:00 am. Thanked my Dad, said goodbye and started to the trailhead. Weather was perfect.

I had researched this little used access trail. It was a known problem that about 2 miles in a bridge was destroyed, requiring a ford. Also, there were notations about the trail being “impassable” to stock. The area had burned about 15 years ago. Standing burned trees topple over, like sticks, so it was not surprising to see the description.

The missing bridge proved a minor challenge. Walking slowly across a stream of snowmelt is bracing! Although one unexpected dip caused me get as deep as my pockets, I numbly emerged on the other side victorious.

After another mile my pleasant hike up the Methow River Valley turned into Satan’s shrubbery. Let me back up. Nature abhors a vacuum. Thus, after a fire, certain “successor” plants like fireweed grow. However, the most aggressive plants are shrubs. Not like boxwood or other “friendly” shrubs, these grow out and then up. The goal must be to block sunlight from reaching the nearby soil. You can picture two of them sprouting up on opposite sides of the trail. They both grow out to block the other and then race to own sunlight. This creates intertwined and overlapping branches. Walking through it is a nightmare. You lose track of the original trail and are stuck flailing in six foot shrub jungles. It was frustrating, exhausting, and bloody.

The biggest irony was that I could hear the mountain stream rushing through the valley, but I couldn’t reach it to drink.

Eight hours, eight miles, and I finally made my goal, a Pacific Crest Trail campsite on Brush Creek. I was getting muscle cramps in my hands, toes, hamstrings and back. Fortunately I had some electrolyte pills. I drank three liters of water and after about four hours felt better. I paid the price, I was on the PCT