Escape Routes

Status update: I am now writing from Stevens Pass, PCT mile 1462. The following 107 miles go through very remote wilderness close to Glacier Peak. The last five days were beautiful, sunny and mild; but more unsettled weather is expected to arrive tomorrow.
Here is the latest forecast:

And more detailed forecasts for 1500 m / 5000 ft elevation around Glacier Peak:


There is a chance of snow showers above 6000 ft elevation. The PCT only reaches 6000 ft in the highest passes. It is still good to be prepared for escape routes.

escape route 1: Go back to Stevens Pass. Good option if weather turns wintery before I reach mile 2480.

Escape route 2: Mile 2499, North Fork Sauk River trail. This trail descends quickly to lower elevation; it is 8 miles from PCT to a forest road, and 8 more miles to a paved road with hitchhiking possibility to civilization. Note: this is an emergency escape route for the case of snow.

Escape Route 3: Mile 2538, Suiattle River. The river valley is at low elevation of 3000 feet. It is 7 miles to a teailhead where I could get a ride if I'm lucky; and an extra 21 miles to a major highway. There's supposed to be a pit toilet at the trail head where I could stay dry in case of heavy rain.

Escape route 4: Stehekin, mile 2569. There is accommodation at the Stehekin Ranch 2.5 miles from the PCT. Also a bus goes twice, a day to the landing on shore of Lake Chelan with a lodge, post office, and bakery. A ferry boat goes in the afternoon from Stehekin Landing to Chelan. In Chelan I can catch a bus to Wenatchee with connection to Seattle. Stehekin is my most probable escape point and possible end point of my PCT hike, still allowing time for a quick weekend visit to see my friends in Utah before leaving the USA.
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After Stehekin it's 80 more miles to Canada border across very high elevation... Not even thinking about that section. The ideal schedule would be reaching Stehekin on Wednesday afternoon. If I reach there, then I'll probably stay at the ranch in a warm and dry cabin and decide on next steps based on weather, time, and my feet.

Notice about my blog:
I am now about 8 days behind in my blog postings. The days are getting shorter and l have chosen to spend time eating huckleberries instead of writing. Also when the sun hides, my fingers get cold very fast while typing on cell phone keyboard. But I promise to catch up on my blog posts, either 6 days from now in Stehekin, or after I leave the trail. My maximum number of remaining days on the PCT is 9 days. On October 10th I must board the plane in Vancouver and exit America!

Eating Cheaper (and still Vegan) on the PCT

In the first month and a half on the PCT until about Aqua Dulce or Tehachapi I spent too much money on food. First of all, in every town I was buying too many trail bars like Pro bar, fig bar, kind bar or Luna bar and their cost quickly adds up. Second, as a hungry and curious hiker I visited at least one or two restaurants in every town. Third, I ordered most trail food in packages from "Outdoor Herbivore" company. The meals are really delicious, nutritious, healthy and quick to prepare with minimum effort. And having a huge variety of pre-packaged foods for every meal makes eating on trail a pleasure. However the seven day meal combo (vegan) with seven breakfasts, seven lunches, and seven dinners costs $122 (this cost includes shipping). If I order that every week, I won't get very far on my budget.
That said I'd still highly recommend the trail food from outdoor herbivore for shorter backpacking trips, and the meals are a great inspiration of what you can eat on the trail. If you're smart, you can prepare many similar meals yourself (especially breakfasts) for a fraction of the cost.

Here's the food I have in bear canister for the next 10 or so days on trail:




Bottom half or more of the canister is filled with a mix of oats, sunflower seeds, walnuts, almonds, banana chips, raisins, and a couple of other nuts and seeds. About one third of the content (oats, nuts, seeds) comes from free hiker box food, the rest I bought in Mammoth. The cheapest place to get oats and raisins is often in the "bulk food" section of grocery stores. The oats donated in hiker box are often the "Quaker oats" packets with added sugar. Mixed with plain rolled oats, the combination tastes right enough: a little sweet, but not too sweet.




The next layer in the bear canister is rice. The "5 minute" rice, while more expensive and bulky than usual rice, is really easy to prepare - you just bring water to boil, add rice and let stand for five mins.




The next essential trail food is couscous. Couscous is very easy to prepare (just bring water to boil and add couscous), space-efficient, and easy to digest. A great option for lunch! There are few brands of couscous, apart from the plain one there's "tri-color couscous" and also the "near east" couscous packets with many different flavors.




To add good taste and flavoring to the rice and couscous I use olive oil, soy sauce, and "cholula" Mexican sauce. The olive oil and Mexican sauce I took from hiker boxes. The soy sauce I bought and then donated half of the bottle to hiker box in turn. The little plastic bottles that hold the sauces and oil I also found in hiker boxes.




To add more greens, I have packages with dehydrated veggies and pre-cooked dried dehydrated beans. Both of them are hiker box findings.




Garlic is also a great fresh ingredient for any kind of food and it is very durable.




Tea is great to warm me up on cold mornings. All the black and green tea bags here are from hiker boxes.




Trail bars taste delicious and give quick energy. But my problem with trail bars is that I always eat too much of them too fast. They also generate a lot of trash from the packaging that I need to carry around. For this reason I don't usually buy trail bars any more. If I do, then the "nature Valley" oat and honey bars are my favorites. Thank you Robert again for your generous gift!



Finally on top of the bear can comes spoon, toothbrush and toothpaste. Let's see how long my supplies will last.

How much tis food costs?

$ 5.79 ... Minute rice (1.5 pounds)
$ 4.99 ... 2 pounds of oats
$ 1.18 ... garlic
$ 2.60 ... banana chips
$ 2.00 ... sunflower kernels
$ 4.49 ... walnuts
$ 2.00 ... soy sauce
$ 4.70 ... couscous (1.25 pounds)
$ 0.00 ... rest of the food from hiker box donations
Total: $ 25.73

More on trying to eat cheap and healthy bin towns in another blog post!

In a few days there is a little village and store in Tuolumne Meadows and I hope there's a rich hiker box there :-)