I have moved to temporary quarters

It's almost time for the Rugby World Cup, and I will be there. I'm taking along my blogging obsession, of course.

I have switched to Word Press for the rugby blog in the egotistical and mercenary hope that this might make it easier for some huge publishing firm to pick up or link to the blog. Whether that happens or not, you can find the blog by going to:

rugbycuptrips.com (note the plural "trips")

Or going to this URL:

https://rugbycuptrips.wordpress.com/

Hope to see you there.

John B.

Why can't I get out of italics?

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

Day 3: Chinook to Stampede Pass

This is the site of a fire that burned in 1988. Obviously the trees do not bounce back right away.

When the last three hikers who passed you on the trail are now coming back toward you, there's probably a problem of some sort. Such was the situation as I came down into Tacoma Pass on what I hoped would be the tail end of our walk on Day 3 (Aug. 5).

Were they fleeing some beast? Were they coming back to carry my pack for me? To apologize for passing me and threatening my self-esteem?

Nope. They were coming back because all of us had walked right past the sign for the water source at Tacoma Pass. I had to turn around and walk back up the hill with them.

We might be excused somewhat because the stream is not right at Tacoma Pass, and it is not right on the Pacific Crest Trail. It's at the end of a small trail that goes off to the left as you are coming down into Tacoma Pass. There is a sign for the turnoff, but it was lying flat on the ground when we all walked past it.

This much is for sure: None of us was going to go past a water source on this day even if it meant backtracking up a hill to find it.

We had camped the night before at a place noted in the guidebook as having a "noisy" spring. It was a very quiet noisy in this dry summer, but the spring did have enough water running out of it to make seven or eight campers happy there that night.

We filled up in the morning knowing we could not rely on getting any water during the day. The next section of trail going north had no reliable water source until reaching Tacoma Pass. Miss it there and your next best bet was a seasonal stream a mile and a half up the trail -- and in this dry season that was not a bet worth taking.

So the four of us hiked back to the rushing stream above Tacoma Pass and filled every vessel we had. Three more hikers joined us while we were there.

Then it was on to the campsite by the seasonal stream. It had a trickle of water mixed with mud. It made the reverse hike at Tacoma Pass well worth the effort.

The dry forests have been especially susceptible to fires this year, and more acreage has burnt in Washington State than ever. My hiking partner John sent this update today on how the fires are affecting the PCT:

http://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/trail-condition/cougar-creek-fire-burning-on-mt-adams/http://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/trail-condition/cougar-creek-fire-burning-on-mt-adams/

http://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/trail-condition/multiple-wildfires-affecting-the-pct-north-of-stevens-pass-washington/

His comment: What a mess.

Day 2: Chinook to Stampede Pass

The trail up Blowout Mountain from our lunch spot.

The best thing about the second day on the trail was finding the best huckleberry patch I've ever tasted -- and I'm not telling you where it is. You'll have to follow me back to it in early August next year. I already have it on my calendar: "Go pick a ton of huckleberries and make pies and jams."

Near the "secret" huckleberry patch, which was passed by at least 20 hikers on August 4th alone, I met an author who was proud to tell me about the book he is writing. It will be called "How to Hike the PCT Using Your Bike and Buses." Here's how it works:

On this leg of his Pacific Crest Trail hike, he had dropped his car at Chinook Pass and then ridden his bike 66 miles to Yakima. From there, he took the bus to Cle Elum, another 60 miles. He didn't mind the $17 they charged to haul his bike, but he was surprised they made him disassemble it. "First time any bus company has made me do that," he said.

Back on the bike, he rode to Snoqualmie Pass, 30 miles of climbing. Once there, he chained up his bike and set out on the trail, a 58-mile walk in the woods that was taking him back to his car for the next section: Chinook Pass to White Pass. His pack was small, his pony tail long and his idea infectious, at least to some of us.

John and I got to figuring out the best way to do his next section, where to park the car, where to bike to, where to catch a bus. We figured the next best step for him was to park the car at White Pass, ride the bike again to Yakima, grab any bus going over Chinook Pass and hope it would slow down long enough for him to get out at the pass. Chain up the bike and walk to White Pass. Nothing could be finer.

This calculating may sound like lunacy to those who are not map and trail nerds. But for those of us with trails ever winding through our brains, this is great mental exercise. You could do this for every section of the PCT between two highways or two bus stops and then start the same thing on the Continental Trail, the Appalachian, and on and on since the trails never ends.

Or you could buy the book. Please look for "How to Hike the PCT Using Your Bike and Buses" in a bookstore near you.

I am so happy that I never thought of doing the PCT this way. I might have been crazy enough to try it.

From our float on the Yakima River

Only 2.5 miles left to cover on the PCT in Washington State

Basin Lake

With a four day hike John and I did at the beginning of August and another he did last week, we each have only 2.5 miles left to cover to complete the Pacific Crest Trail across Washington State. But it might not happen this year as the area we have to cover is where the biggest fires in the state's history are burning right now.

What's happening now in the Methow Valley and Okanogan County is tragic. Homes and forests lost to fires that overwhelm our efforts to contain them.

Fortunately, we were in the woods south of where the fires are, hiking from Chinook Pass to Stampede Pass. That took us on the east side of Mount Rainier through the Norse Peak Wilderness area. It was not as crowded as my hike the week before in the Goat Rocks Wildreness but we did pass 12 day hikers and seven backpackers the first day out (Monday, Aug. 3).

Most of them, like us, were asking about water. We asked and they asked as we passed each other on the trail, "How far to water? Does the seasonal stream up ahead have any water in it?" That's what a drought will do to a hiking season.

In my experience, water has never been hard to find when hiking in the Pacific Northwest; you usually end up walking through streams of it or in it as it falls from the sky. But this year you actually have to pay attention and look for it. We found water at Big Crow Basin in a spring off the trail but missed the camping spot indicated on our map at Little Crow Baisn. So we pushed on to Martinson Gap where we set up a dry camp and hoped to find water early the next day.

Just before we set up for the night, we came across a fellow obviously suffering from TLOTS -- Too Long on Trail Syndrome. He was sitting in a clump of trees, bearded head a mushroom puff on a thick stalk, JetBoil between his legs in front of him, tent and bedroll right behind him. Did he know where the campsite was? No, but did we want him to look on his map? Not necessary, we said. Good, he said, then I won't reach the two feet to my right where the map is, and he went back to cooking.

All the signs of TLOTS: Social interactivity diminished; post-hiking exertion severely restricted; attention absorbed in food preparation and then sleep.

Careful it doesn't happen to you.

If we love wilderness, should we not go there?

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“People who actually love untouched wilderness stay out of it.”

That was a comment on my last blog post shared on Facebook about the crowd alert on the Pacific Crest Trail. At first I took it as scolding me for going into the forest.

Then I thought that if no one goes there, what good is it. Quick answer to that came to mind: It’s good for the flora and fauna that lives there.

But then I thought that if no one goes there, who will know what flora and fauna lives there. Who will be the defenders of wilderness against those who would develop it for the resources there? And you know that those looking for new resources are going to go there poking and prodding for ways to turn wilderness green into another kind of green. They would “tear treasure out of the bowels of the land . . .with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe,” to quote Joseph Conrad in “Heart of Darkness.”

Finally, the thought came to me that this is just a noble sounding excuse to stay home and watch TV. So I loaded up the backpack and set off for the PCT again. Hardly untouched wilderness these days with the through hikers passing through (where the fires will let them), but still the great outdoors and I must go.

Whataya think?