[pct-l] Rainy Pass to Manning Park - Section L - conditions report

[t.devos at comcast.net]

Group of three did a section hike from Rainy  5:30pm July 25 - to Manning Park - 4:30 pm July 30th.  
Camped at Cutthroat Pass, Glacier Pass, Harts Pass, Holman Pass, Castle Pass.
Trail was in excellent condition - Weather was incredible - blue skies every day - and incredible stars at night.

As mentioned in previous posts there were a number of downed trees (50-75) - but all were easy to pass - once or twice we had to pass packs through - We met a forest service trail crew of 2 doing trail clearing - they were camped at the bridge at the West Fork of the Methow just after Willows and we thanked them profusely for the work they had done to that point.  From that point north there was no trail work completed - except when we crossed the border into Canada.  

We met 3 US Forestry Service guys at Harts pass - they were driving a pickup and claimed that road to the pass would be repaired in the the next week or so - they were suprised to see us. 

We had good water the whole way.  Slate creek about 1/2 mile north of Harts Pass was still running strongly.  

The Castle creek camp area just past the border - was completely cleaned up - and the Canadians installed bear caches at the campsites so there was no need to hang anything in trees.  They also completely cleared the trail in the last week - there had been dozens and dozens of dead falls - which no longer posed a problem.

We met a few hikers along the way - including Eric - a through hiker who was planning to get to the border, then turn around and head south.

Drop me a line if you have any questions
Theo