On August 7, I joined 4 other hikers and 4 llamas on a 7 day trip from White Pass to FR 5603 through the Goat Rocks on the PCT in Washington. This was part of the annual Pass to Pass (PtP) Hike on the PCT for Parkinson’s. This year’s PtP event included three hikes: Hike 1 from Chinook to White Pass, Hike 2 from White Pass to FR 5603, and Hike 3 from FR 5603 to FR 60 in the Indian Heaven Wilderness.
Trip 2 included three guys with Parkinson’s (Parkies), myself and another non-Parkie support hiker, and four llamas to carry most of our gear. We had planned on taking 3 days to reach the Knife Edge (KE) but ended up pushing it to arrive in two, which turned out to be very fortunate. If you haven’t heard of the Knife Edge, check out some of the videos on YouTube. It is spectacular! We had great weather up to and for the crossing of the Knife Edge, which was a bit dicey with packed llamas. But the night after, and luckily at a lower elevation, we got hit by a major thunderstorm. I was sure glad we weren’t up at the high camp waiting to cross the KE!
That night I made a rookie hanger mistake: I moved my hang out of a sheltered area to a spot where I could see Mt. Adams with the tarp in porch mode. The problem was that I put the hammock up between 2 Alpine Spruce trees, which are designed to be flexible. When the wind kicked up around 1:30am I got tossed around like a rag doll!
The next day we camped even lower and I made sure I was in a sheltered spot between 2 massive pines. I slept like a baby for 10 hours.
We made the trailhead a day early and were treated to some cold beer by a PCT Trail Angel. Thank you Stark Naked! The next day the Trip 3 team met us and we traded our llamas for cars and headed to Packwood for burgers and beers.
This was a fantastic trip with magnificent views and great campsites.
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Originally Posted by FLTurtle
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