Day 134: The Trail Provides

Date: Wed 8/29

PCT Start Mile: 2351.7

PCT End Mile: 2380.1

PCT Mileage for Day: 28.4

Total PCT Mileage: 2380.1

The Highlights: beautiful sunrise, ramen bomb, sunshine, and trail magic

This morning we woke up to a gorgeous sunrise, the oranges, yellows, and pinks filtering into our tent.

The gorgeous sunrise colors lingered for awhile into our hike, eventually fading as the day grew lighter.

Beautiful views of Mt Rainier continued into the morning, which brought steep undulating climbs and descents, a theme for Washington, it seems.

Mt Rainier in the distance with the morning moon.

At our lunch break, I made my first ever ramen bomb. Basically, a ramen bomb is ramen with instant mashed potatoes used to soak up the extra liquid. This does not sound or look that appetizing, but is surprisingly tasty.

While I don’t have any experience to speak from, I can only imagine hiker hunger is a bit like being pregnant: suddenly the weirdest combinations taste amazing.

Ramen bombs seem to be direct proof. Many hikers have been eating this combo for the entire trail, so I figured I better try it before this adventure is over. Not too shabby.

Ramen bomb. Not much to look at but pretty tasty.

Hiking along later in the afternoon, we were coming up to a dirt road crossing at Stampede Pass when Shawn said, “Ut oh! Looks like trail magic!” I peered through the trees. “What!?! Are you lying to me?!?” I questioned excitedly. I could now see colorful camp chairs arranged at the trail head ahead. It was trail magic!!!

Enjoying some trail magic and chairs!!! Trail angel Theresa in the background with another hiker.

Indeed, a wonderful woman named Theresa had a spread of chips and dips, fruit, veggies, baked goods, sodas, and hot beverages, and was serving the weary hikers.

We walked up with big dopey smiles on our faces, already telling her thank you before we’d received anything, just excited to even sit in chairs. It’s difficult to overstate just what trail magic food means to hikers. Anything that you aren’t carrying in your pack is like pure gold.

Theresa’s “hiker bean dip”. Very delicious.

Theresa served us up her awesome “hiker bean dip” with Doritos and other goodies and we sat chowing down the food with cold sodas. Instant calorie infusion.

Theresa was a retired school teacher. She had met her first hikers in 2001, and started coming to Stampede Pass during the August-September weekends to leave food and drinks near the trailhead.

Eventually, after retiring from teaching in 2014, she started setting up a table with goodies and camp chairs to meet the hikers herself, providing cooked foods. A delicious “hiker bean dip” when it was warm out and a soup version for the cold and rainy days.

Other than the hikers she meets through her trail magic, she doesn’t personally know anyone that has hiked the trail and hasn’t hiked it herself. She just met some PCT hikers in 2001 and decided she wanted to feed the hikers and has been doing it ever since. Pretty awesome. We have met so many amazing trail angels on this journey.

Fueled by trail magic, we made short work of the next five miles before setting up camp. We had originally hoped to camp a little earlier near a river, but the only good site was taken. We ended up just a couple tenths up the trail alongside s dirt road.

A couple pick-ups drove by while we cooked our dinners, but other than that no one has come by. Shawn set up some short rock piles alongside the road before the tent, so at least any vehicles that veered off the road would hit the rocks before they hit us. 😆 He’s so smart.

Getting in the tent and tucking into our sleeping bags, I noticed some ominous gray clouds in the sky. “Do you think we should put the rain fly up?”, I asked Shawn. “Nah,” he said. Hopefully we won’t realize this was a bad decision in the middle of the night.