[pct-l] 78% hike Cascade Locks to White Pass - skip Trout Lake

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

On Dec 1, 2011, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> 78% hike directly from Cascade Locks to White Pass. It's quite normal.
>
> What some folks do is skip the 34 miles between Cascade Locks and Wind
> River Rd and just walk Wind River Rd to Panther Crk Rd to the PCT at
> Panther Crk CG. You can shave a 34 mile day off that way. This doesn't
> work for the purist! :)

I did the road walk. I wanted to save carrying a day's worth of food.  
Someday I'll go back and do that whole first section of Washington  
pure PCT, no road-walk. It's funny how much I enjoy having reasons to  
return to the trail.

It seems so normal to stop and do your resupply in Cascade Locks, but  
if I could do it over again, I'd try to get myself to Stevenson  
(that's the name of the major town across the river, right?) and do  
my resupply there instead. They had more upscale stores there, a  
better-stocked grocery and several nice espresso places (for some  
reason espresso places became dreams come true for me on the trail  
what with the delicious coffee and pastries and computer access).  
 From there I could either continue the road walk or return to the  
trail.

Although one nice thing about Cascade Locks was the free camping on  
the river-front and sitting in the setting sunset watching the river  
and drinking a beer.

What I did end up doing was staying in Cascade Locks, doing the road  
walk, buying some supplemental items at the better grocery store in  
Stevenson, stopping in at an espresso place for coffee, pastries and  
use of the internet, then continuing on along the road walk to  
Panther Creek, getting lost somehow and walking along a really nice  
residential street. Sure is pretty there.