[pct-l] Trail Magic Sites in Washington

[Barry Teschlog]

As you're aware, there aren't a lot of road accessible locations in Washington.  Where there are road crossings, often times, those are at town stops where magic doesn't make sense (e.g. Forest Rd 23 to Trout Lake, White Pass, Snoqualmie Pass, Stevens Pass).  A free burger and beer at Snoqualmie doesn't make sense with the restaurants and Dru Bru there, for example.

At the other spots (Chinook Pass, Harts Pass, Rainy Pass, Government Meadows, the road crossings in the "checkerboard" clearcuts south of Snoqualmie Pass, etc) there are many established trail magic providers.  A few years ago, there were 3 within 10 trail miles - Tacoma Pass, a road near Snowshoe Butte and a third at Stampede Pass.
I'd suggest digging around on the various trail angel FB pages and find out who goes where and when, then coordinate so multiple's don't show up to the same place.
OR..........
Do magic in a different manner - join the local trail crew.

Drinks, etc are fine, who doesn't want a cold coke or hot burger.  But the magic is done when you drive home, and you impact how many people?  A few dozen at the most?

If you want the magic to last & to help for years to come, join the trail crew.
We just got an e-mail to that effect:"Holy cow!  The PCT from Milk Creek to Mica Lake looks amazing!!  That was the stretch I ran last year on Don’s crew and commented had brush over my head and trees that I still have scars from.  Those complex tree tangles have all been cleared (2 new downed trees on that switchback set) and the brush was cleared!!! ...[P]lease pass on my thanks if you know them!  It was a privilege to run that stretch on back to back years and experience the huge improvement! "
Want to build a bridge on the PCT over a creek near Rainy Pass?  

How about restoring the part that burned in the Norse Peak fire?  

Clearing logs south of Stevens Pass?  

These are just a few of the projects that are going on in Washington. There are more single day projects if you get on the FB page / e-mail list of the local PCTA crews.

https://www.pcta.org/volunteer/project-schedule/

Want an example of the benefits provided to the hikers?  A couple of us had cleared a brushy section of the PCT south of Snoqualmie Pass in 2009.  Prior to clearing, the huckleberry bushes were waist to shoulder high, touching from both sides of the trail.  Wading through that on a cool September morning meant being soaked to the skin.  After clearing - every....single....hiker that passed that way from August of 2009 to date enjoyed a better trail experience - 9 years worth.  That's thousands of hikers helped from one day of "magic".  No amount of sodas can reach that many.

The local crew just cleared that same stretch again on the 4th of July, almost 9 years to the day later.  Note that the crew cleared it long before it got to as bad as it was in 2009.  So, for my 2 days of effort, once in 2009, and again earlier this month, I've helped literally thousands of hikers - thru, section and day, enjoy this section.