Day 4: Chinook Pass to Stampede Pass

Here's what you do on the trail if you are observing a day of silence.

People come up with all kinds of things to do on the trail.

These two recent Harvard grads (so they told John the night before and he should know a fellow Harvard grad) passed me on the trail not long after I left camp on our last day out (Aug. 6).

I immediately started to ask them if they were through-hikers, when they started, etc. They responded by holding up signs that said, "Day of Silence" and "We are doing a day of no talking. Sorry."

That could be an interesting way to spend a day, but I wondered why they chose this particular day for keeping mum. Chances are they planned to reach Snoqualmie Pass that night. There they would find restaurants, a motel with hot showers and clean sheets, espresso and other luxuries not found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Would they hold up signs to order up all these wonders? Or maybe they planned to just keep hiking through the delights of Snoqualmie Pass and on to the exquisite scenery north of there.

John speculated that after months on the trail they had run out of things to say to each other. Then the next day they could talk about their reactions to a Day of Silence. Or maybe they do this ever so often as they hike the trail. I never got a chance to ask.

The last part of the trail into Stampede Pass crosses several roads and power lines. The trail guide promised a weather station with good well water, but I never saw it. Didn't really need it as my water supply from Tacoma Pass got me through to trail's end for this portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Not sure when we will get to Hart's Pass to finish the last gap -- only 2.5 miles -- on the PCT across Washington State. The fires up there will have to die out, and Kathy and I are off on a long trip out of the country. So it may mean waiting until 2016.

I am looking forward to it whenever it happens.

Mount Rainier