[pct-l] Malto and Rusticus in the Southern Part of the Glacier Peak Wilderness

[Keith Kurko]

A good friend and I took an extended weekend and hiked a bit of the PCT
north of Steven's Pass.  On Monday, we ran into a pair of fast moving thru
hikers, Malto and Rusticus just south of Grizzly Peak (see attached photo
with Malto on left).  They told us that they were the fifth and sixth
thru-hikers this year to have reached this far north from Campo.  Rusticus
had a seemingly tiny pack.  He said his base weight is about 5 pounds.  With
a smile on his face, Malto made some tongue-in-cheek statement about the
general scarcity of snow this year, and he also sends his greetings to the
PCT list.

A few general observations about the trail:  At this time in a typical year,
in this section it would be without snow.  But there are lots of small
patches in shady spots at the higher elevations.  Also at the higher
elevations, there are frequent small meltwater ponds and these are breeding
a pretty good crop of mosquitoes.  There are also a number of blowdown trees
over the trail.  I would estimate maybe four or five per mile.  Some of them
are whoppers.  Overall trail conditions, in terms of water and bugs, seem
more like mid-July than the third week of August.

 

Keith