[pct-l] Postholer or Trailjournals

[Barry Teschlog]

Rebecca wrote:

I plan to hike the Washington section starting at the end of June or maybe after July 4th, depending on the snow levels.

Reply:

IF it's a normal snow year, you might encounter a lot of snow on the trail with your noted start dates.  You probably already know this and have taken it into consideration, but for the good of those who may be newer to the list, here's my 2 cents on what someone heading out at that time might encounter:

Depending on one's pace, hiking the 500+ miles in Washington can take 20 to 40 days.  Many years ago, I'd set out to do all of the state in one batch and had planned about 30 days, give or take.  With the noted intended start dates, chances are, again, in a NORMAL snow year, that you'll encounter significant stretches of the trail that are still snow bound into the mid or even late July time frame.  If a hiker has planned, trained and equipped for this, it shouldn't be much of an issue.  If the hiker ISN'T trained for it, hadn't planned on it, or is inadequately equipped, it can be a real pain in the neck....or worse.


In 2012, our trail crew did our first work party on July 1 just south of Snoqualmie Pass.  Elevation is about 3500 feet or so, so it's one of the lower parts of the trail in Washington.  We waded through quite a bit of snow, before breaking out onto the snow free patch of trail we were going to work.  On the 4th of July, again, we managed to get out onto a dry patch of trail and clear some brush - barely a week and a half earlier, just north of that area, our scouts were wading through 3 foot deep snow, lost the trail and had to turn back (and that part still hadn't melted out by the 4th, although it was mostly melted out by the 20th, enough for the chain saw crews to clear blow down).  


Through the first half of July, we had to hunt and peck to find sections of the trail that had melted out enough for us to work on - and this was mostly on the lower elevation section south of Snoqualmie Pass / I-90.  Of course, the corollary can be true as well.  In 2005 I hiked from White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass starting the first of July or so and didn't encounter a single patch of snow....then again, 2005 was a very low snow year here in Washington so going that early was a breeze.  You may luck out, or it may be a lingering snow year.


Watch the snow sensors (Google "Snotel" and you'll find the NRCS site) and know that zero snow water equivalent (SWE) does NOT necessarily mean no snow on the ground.  Give it a while (several weeks, depending on how warm) after the sensors read zero for much of the snow on the trail to have actually melted.  Note that Stampede Pass sensors are currently down (broke on Jan 24th), use Olallie Meadow as a substitute for the Snoqualmie Pass area.  Take into consideration the elevation of the sensors relative to the elevation of the trail in that general area - e.g. Stevens Pass for example, the sensor is at the pass, while the trail is significantly higher within 15 miles either direction from there.  The list of sensors you might want to monitor, south to north, include:

Potato Hill, White Pass, Bumping Ridge & Cayuse Pass  (both near Chinook Pass), Stampede Pass (if fixed), Olallie Meadows, Stevens Pass, Lyman Lake (replaces the now inactive Miners Ridge for the Glacier Peak area), Rainy Pass and Hart's Pass.


Note that some sections of the trail would be absolutely unsafe to traverse if still buried in anything more than a spotty, thin, remnant layer of snow - I'm thinking specifically of the Kendal Katwalk.  A fall there is certain death since there is little to no room to recover / self arrest before going over the edge of a high, super steep drop off.