Day 32: The Republic Entrance #2

August 16: I woke up early and hit the trail a little after 6:00am. The trail was in pretty good condition overall but there weren't many water sources along the route. I definitely filled up every opportunity I could! The biggest obstacle for the day were lots of little ups and down and that lack of water.

The weather was warm but clear which allowed for nice views throughout the day. The few blowdowns across the trail came to an end when I crossed paths with a guy carrying a chainsaw. He had been hired to log out the trail of blowdowns and told me that the rest of the trail through Highway 21 was now clear of blowdowns. He asked if there was much along the trail closer to where I had started the morning--he still had that section left to do and wanted an idea of how much work was involved. I hadn't been counting the blowdowns, but there were definitely a few. Not a lot, though. Probably no worse than what he had already been doing.

He was the only person I saw on the trail all day.

I continued on, eventually reaching the trailhead of 13-Mile Camp at Highway 21 where Amanda was already waiting for me. She filled me in on her doings since we split up yesterday which included two more visits to Stonerose to look for more fossils spending four hours each day--both yesterday and today--looking for them. "I found my calling!" she proclaimed, and showed me her new fossil finds. "I might have to go back again." Because the nearly 10 hours she had already spent looking for fossils over the last three days wasn't enough.

I grabbed a cold Coke and told her of my trials and tribulations--and the mournful loss of my Croc. But I wasn't done hiking quite yet. Nope, now the trail followed the road for 3.4 miles to the 10-Mile Campground. (The 13-Mile and 10-Mile camps were, I believe, named after how far they were from the town of Republic.)

Amanda, happy after spending 8 more hours looking for fossils then waiting for me.

I wanted to get these 3.4 miles in today because I had a particularly long day planned for tomorrow and the more miles I finished today, the fewer I would have to do tomorrow. Amanda drove up the trail ahead of me to wait and I started the 3.4-mile road walk.

The road walk was... blah. It was a paved road, so thumb down for that. And the road, while not super busy, was still busy enough to be annoying. Another thumb down for that. And the road had no shoulder to walk on so another thumb down for that. Three thumbs down!

But the views of the dramatic cliff valley were awesome and the walking was easy so a thumb up for that. So, overall, two thumbs down.

I arrived at 10-Mile Camp where my day's hike officially came to an end. I jumped into the car and we headed back to the town of Republic, this time entering the city from the south.

We stopped at a couple of places in town looking for somewhere that might sell Crocs but came up empty. There wasn't a full-fledged outfitters and we looked at some cheap flip-flops thinking I might use those as temporary camp shoes until I could acquire replacement Crocs.

Then we checked into the Prospector Inn and walked over to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.

The road walk from 13-Mile Camp to 10-Mile Camp included these very dramatic cliffs that were absolutely amazing!

The views in this canyon were absolutely jaw-dropping, but my photos really don't do it justice. Even when I was taking the pictures, I was disappointed with them because they really didn't capture the scale of the place. Of course, photos never look as great as the real thing, but that was even more of the case here!

13-Mile Camp is just inside the Colville Indian Reservation (see the trailhead in the background?), and I noticed this sign behind me while walking to 10-Mile Camp. It's welcoming people to the Indian reservation and the white sign under it says, "Tribal code laws apply." Yep, don't break tribal codes or else! State laws do not apply! I wondered how they differed from state laws.

Day 31: My Croc! My Croc! My Kingdom for a Croc!

August 15: I woke up, packed up and--with Amanda's help--headed out. Initially, I had hoped to do a lot of slackpacking while Amanda was around, but it was about 33 miles between trailheads which included a 3-mile bushwhack. There was no way I could do that distance in one day, even with a light pack. Nope, I had to break it up between two days. There was a forest service road, however, roughly halfway between trailheads but we weren't sure if Amanda's vehicle could make it. She would try to drive out to it, but there no guarantees. So I packed up a full pack just in case she couldn't make it. I didn't want to be stranded overnight in the wilderness without a sleeping bag!

But my pack would be fairly light since I only intended to be out for a single night. I only needed two days and one night of food. My pack was so light, in fact, I even took my fancy camera--just in case there were any bears or bald eagles to get photos of. =)

Crossing Highway 20

So we checked out of the hotel and drove up Highway 20 back to the trailhead where Amanda had picked me up two days earlier.

An hour or two into the hike, I passed a group of 5 day hikers heading in my direction. We chatted a bit before continuing onward. The trail passed a hut which is available for rent. The 5 day hikers said it was rented for the night, but I had no intention of stopping here anyhow. It was much too early in the day to stop! It was a nice little hut, though.

I filled up with water near the hut from a small spring. Good thing too because the next two springs showing on my map turned out to be dry--a fact that I did not know at the time. But I started running low on water. I had expected to refill at one of the springs that were now dry and had thrown away my 1.5 liter water bottle in town after it sprang a leak so I couldn't fill up with a large amount of water even if I wanted to.

This cute little hut is available for renting overnight, but I hadn't made any reservations and it was much too early in the morning to stop now!

Further up the trail, I missed a trail junction that was largely hidden in some grass and went a half-mile in the wrong direction down a steep hill before I realized that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. I backtracked and eventually found the trail junction I had missed, but not without a bit of cussing on my part.

And finally I reached the point I had been dreading all day: the bushwhack. The primary route required a 3-mile bushwhack. There was an alternative route which allegedly was easier and had less bushwhacking, but I wanted to stay on the primary route as much as possible and charged into the forest.

It was a dreadful experience. Vegetation and snags grabbed at my clothes, ripping yet another large hole in my pants that I would have to sew up again later in camp. I struggled to find a route through the thick vegetation and trees. Branches ripped off my hat a couple of times.

The bushwhack has begun!

The worst section of the bushwhack had me go down a rather steep hillside then up what looked like a cliff. When I first looked at it, it seemed impassible. How the hell could I get up that?! I decided to veer around the right side where the cliff became a super steep hillside and I often used branches and tree trunks to pull myself up. I had one scare when the tree trunk I was holding onto ripped out of the ground and fell down the slope and I quickly tried to grab something else before it pulled me down with it! The tree wasn't very large, but the ground was very unstable and just couldn't hold the weight of the tree and my weight.

The tree fell and I scrambled up to a safer location, cussing at the lack of the trail. What the hell is wrong with these people routing this trail?!

Once I made it to the top of the ridge, the going was easier and quicker. The vegetation was still around in clumps but the thick stuff was easy to navigate around, although occasionally I hit a dead end and I had to go through the thick vegetation again.

It looks impenetrable--and it is! But it didn't stop me from pushing through anyhow!

Heading back down the other side of the ridge, the vegetation closed up again and the going became difficult.

There was a small pond ahead and I badly needed water. I was rationing the water I did have--temperature were miserably hot and my water supplies low, but I needed that pond water. I really hoped and prayed that I would not miss it and that it wasn't dry. It might be a problem if I couldn't pick up water there.

I did find it, though, and there was water in it! Hurray! I cheered at the welcome sight! Well, cheering might not be the right word. The pond looked muddy and stagnant and absolutely horrible, but bad water was still better than no water. I set my pack down on a dry patch of ground when I noticed that one of my Crocs had fallen off my pack. Argh!!!!

Horrible, stagnant pond water

I usually put my Crocs--my camp shoes--on the outside of my pack because there isn't much room inside and I did that out of habit, but it was a stupid mistake because the clawing tree branches and vegetation will easily pull off anything not secured to one's pack. But the really stupid thing was that with my pack empty of food, there was plenty of room to put my Crocs inside of it. I lost my Croc for no good reason at all!

And I certainly wasn't going to go back and look for it. Hell, I could walk three feet away from it and not see the thing--and there was no way I could possibly retrace the exact route I had taken. At least if I dropped it on an actual trail I could backtrack on the trail and look for it, but there was no trail to follow!

So I was angry about losing my Croc, but it was a lost cause and I quickly put it out of my mind. Right now, I needed water. I walked out on a fallen tree to get past all the mud on the shoreline and filled up in the pond. The water was still brown and dirty and stagnant--and bad enough that I felt it should be treated. I usually don't treat my water and, so far, hadn't done so at all on this trail--but I did carry a small bottle of iodine tablets just in case I was ever forced to drink water that was less than pleasant, and this ugly water source justified it. I dropped in a few tablets but would need to wait at least a half hour before I could drink it.

Nasty pond water--so bad, I even treated it!

I returned to my pack and continued the bushwhack. I was most of the way through it at this point, but I wanted to cry. The bushwhack was awful. I just wanted to be done with it. I swore up and down that I would never voluntarily do another bushwhack again. Never again! If there was an alternative that shortened a bushwhack or avoided it completely, I would take it. I didn't care if it added a dozen miles to my hike--I'd take it. This was the third bushwhack of the hike and every single one of them had been utterly miserable experiences. A small part of my brain wished there was a horrible wildfire that could clear out the vegetation.

According to my GPS, I was getting close to a forest service road which would mark the end of the bushwhack. I started looking for it ahead, eager just to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, but even when my GPS showed the road as being 30 feet ahead, I could still see no evidence of the road. Was it not there? Was my GPS wrong? Surely I should have been able to see it by now! Where is the road?! I was desperate to get to the road out and out of the bushwhack.

I finally spotted the road about 10 feet ahead. I took a photo then raced the last 10 feet to freedom. I made it! I made it! I dropped my pack and shouted for joy! Goddamn f*#$ing bushwhacks!

It had taken me nearly 4 hours to make it through the 3-mile bushwhack. It's definitely not fast!

My salvation and my first view of the end of the bushwhack!

After a short rest, I pushed onward. The trail followed the gravel road for a short distance and I was elated to be walking fast, quickly and unobstructed. The road looked to be mostly in good condition, but a couple of trees and fallen onto it which might give vehicles trouble. They were, I thought, still passable for Amanda's vehicle, but only barely. Of course, I had no idea what the condition of the road was before I merged onto it, but based on what I could see, Amanda maybe could have made it out here.

I looked around for evidence that she had been there. She'd never have been able to find where I came out of the woods. I don't even know if *I* could have found where I came out of the woods, but the trail should veer off onto a proper trail with a trailhead and if she was able to make it, that's where she would likely be. But she might have left a note somewhere before that. Or drew a word in chalk on a tree or rock. Something to let me know she had made it, but I didn't find anything. I hoped to see any vehicle pass by. I figured if another vehicle had passed by, then it was proof that Amanda might make it as well, but no.... I didn't see any vehicles the entire way. None that drove past me, and none that were parked on the side of the road.


I finally reached the trailhead where the trail veered off the road and back onto a proper trail, but Amanda was nowhere to be seen. I guess she wasn't able to make it out.

I was exhausted. I'd only completed 14.0 miles according to my GPS, but it was a rough 14 miles and the sun was about to set. I set up camp by the trailhead and called it a day. I cooked dinner, then--since I knew I would be back in civilization tomorrow--spent the rest of the evening watching The Office on my phone. I also sewed up the new holes in my pants while watching them. I wasn't worried about running the battery down--it was freshly charged from town and I wasn't even able to use half the battery power before I was too tired and fell asleep.

The bushwhack was horrible! Horrible, I tell you! Don't do it!

A little levity at the end of the day on the road walk.

Day 30: The Republic Zero--fossil hunting!

August 14:  Today would be my first zero day in nearly two weeks--and I was glad to have it! I needed a break! The trail has been tough.

During that time, Gypsy had sent me an email asking if I'd be interested in hiking with him through the Pasayten Wilderness--a vast, remote location coming up on the trail. He had sent the email a week earlier, but to an email address that I only check when I'm online with my laptop so I hadn't received it until now. I was thrilled at the opportunity to have company on my hike and emailed him back yes--please join me! I wasn't sure exactly when I'd reach that area, but I told him that I was in Republic and gave a rough ETA of when I'd be in Oroville--the last trail town before I would enter the wilderness area. I hoped it would work out.

In the meantime, I had Amanda to keep me company in Republic and we spent the morning... hiking. Yes, on my day off, I went hiking. But it was a short walk on the Ferry County Rail Trail without a heavy pack. We did it first thing in the morning because temperatures were supposed to grow uncomfortably warm by the late afternoon--especially at the relatively low elevation of Republic.

Amanda also brought my fancy camera back which I immediately put to use snapping photos of turtles on a log. They were gorgeous photos! Or rather, they could have been gorgeous photos. I forgot to put a memory card in the camera and--as it turned out--not a single one of those photos was actually recorded. Agh! I had taken the memory card out of the camera before I mailed it--just in case the camera got lost or stolen in the mail; the camera could be replaced but the photos were priceless! So I popped out the SD card and carried it with me the whole time, not trusting it to the US post office. And... I forgot I had done that when I got the camera back and started snapping photos without the SD card in it. Oops!

After realizing my mistake, I put the SD card back in and continued snapping photos, but the turtles had jumped into the water by then. I got some turtle photos later when a couple of them climbed back up on the logs, but they weren't nearly as nice the photos I thought I had gotten earlier when the turtles were closer. I was disappointed!

This turtle wasn't as near or impressive as the photos I didn't get!

There was also a bald eagle flying around the lake so I snapped a few shots of him, but I wasn't as quick with my camera as I'd have preferred because I only got my camera out and ready after the bird had flown some distance away from us. But at least with the zoom lens, I could still get a photo!

Bald eagle!

Afterward, we headed back into town and went to the Stonerose fossil site. This area, 50 million years ago, was part of a large lake system and layers of sediment built up in the lakebed. Over time, they turned into sedimentary rocks--shale and sandstone. The shale splits apart like pages in a book where one can find insects, leaves, fish and flowers that sank into the water to become fossils.

And the public--like us!--are allowed to hunt the fossils! There are some rules, though. We have to show our finds to the employees at the interpretive center to identify our finds and, if it's something especially interesting, they can keep it. But otherwise, we can keep up to three of our finds each day for ourselves. If we find more than three, they'll keep it to provide to schools or museums or such for educational purposes.

But in a nutshell, we can look for fossils--and keep some of our discoveries!

So we paid the necessary fee and they provided the chisels for us to hunt for fossils. The dig site is a short walk away, so we walked over. A few people were already there digging at various locations, and Amanda and I joined the hunt.

Time to dig for fossils!

The work was hot and sweaty. It was about noon and the sun beat mercilessly on the exposed rock face. We picked away at the rocks for a half hour or so, not finding anything or finding small dots in the rock that we weren't sure if it was a fossil or a defect in the rock. I found it a little discouraging, but then Amanda finally found a definitive, definitely-a-fossil in the rock.

And eventually, I found one as well. My find was a small one, maybe the size of a fingernail, but it was clearly a fossil. Trying to get it out of the cliff face without breaking it was the hard part!

My first fossil fine of the day. If I hadn't chipped the corner of this slab, I might have missed it entirely! It was kind of humbling to the be the first person to ever see this 50 million year old fossil! For 50 million years, this fossil lay in the rock waiting for my arrival!

We ended up spending an hour or two digging around the rocks. I quit after finding two fossils--I might have continued until I found three but it was just so miserably hot out. Amanda kept going at it, though, and I relaxed under a covered table and bench reading my Kindle until Amanda got tired of the fossil hunt as well. She was certainly enthralled by the hunt!

She ended the day with five or six fossils or so and said she would have kept going except that I was clearly done with it. I didn't see the sense in finding more than 3 fossils, though--the interpretive center would just keep the extras anyhow! I guess Amanda wanted more fossils to choose from to keep. She'd pick her favorite three to keep. She said she might go back and do some more fossil hunting when I was back on the trail hiking.

Amanda, hard at work uncovering 50-million-year-old fossils.

Afterwards, we headed to the Knotty Pine for lunch where I ordered the Western Burger with a side salad.

And the rest of the afternoon and evening I spent working on Straw Hat's website. They had quite a bit of work they wanted me to do, some of which was time sensitive, so I sat down with my laptop and got a lot of work done.

And that was it. A nice day, all-in-all! =)

Lunch at the Knotty Pine

This was kind of funny and somewhat sad at the same time. Allegedly 74% of the people in eastern Washington want to secede from Washington state to form the new state of "Liberty". (I'd take the 74% number with a huge grain of salt--I'd definitely fact check it before believing it! The flyer, obviously, has a lot of biases.) But whoever graffitied it by writing "Rollerblading sodomite pedophiles" on Western Washington and "godly people" on the eastern side aren't helping their cause. I'm pretty sure that most of the sodomite pedophiles have been driven into Eastern Washington where they can live without neighborhood vigilantes protesting around their homes and the only law that people need is a gun on their hip. (Before slamming me for that, it totally a joke!) Although I do think splitting up states into smaller areas is not going to going to solve problems.

My second fossil find of the day.

Day 29: The Republic Entrance #1

August 13: I had a short 13.4-mile hike today to reach Highway 20 and my ride into the small town of Republic. Being such a short day, I lingered in my nice, warm sleeping bag a bit longer than normal but was on the trail and hiking by 7:00am.

The day's hike was largely uneventful with the trail generally following ridge lines and, while not flat, was never particularly rugged or difficult. It felt more like rolling hills despite hiking through very mountainous terrain.

In clear areas, the views were spectacular through the Kettle Crest range. In the trees, the views were obscured, but the trail was generally in good condition and I progressed quickly.

The last mile or two, the trail descended sharply toward Highway 20. I passed a couple of day hikers--the first and only hikers I saw on the trail since the day I left Metaline Falls five days earlier.

There was a small trailhead at a gravel parking log just before the trail crosses Highway 20, and I veered off to it where I found Amanda napping in her car.

Hello, Amanda!

I had been expecting Amanda. She drove up last night and camped at the trailhead waiting for my arrival--by now, she was probably feeling a little restless. The last time I spoke with her, I gave her an ETA of sometime before noon but that was a little off. Originally, when I left Northport, I hadn't expected to arrived until tomorrow. It's hard to predict exactly when I'll arrive at any specific place and my advice to her was to check my location and progress with my SPOT device since most of the time, I couldn't call her with my cell phone. She hadn't spent the whole day in the car, however, having hiked the trail to a small lookout point. She said she thought about going up the trail to meet me along the way but decided against it when it started going steeply uphill. The drop down to the trailhead had been the steepest part of the whole trail all day. *nodding*

I took off my shoes and piled into the car for the drive into the nearest town: Republic, WA.

It was maybe a dozen miles down Highway 20 but the drive took longer because much of it was under construction and traffic could only pass through in one direction at a time while following a pilot car.

But eventually we made it and checked into the Northern Inn. We swung by the post office where I picked up my mail drop, then we went out to dinner.

The town was small--just a few blocks from end to end with all of the essential services in easy walking distance, and it had a western vibe with the false fronts on several of the buildings. It was a cute town, but we didn't spend much time exploring it. Tomorrow was a planned zero day when we could see the town much more thoroughly! For me, the rest of the evening was spent catching up on email, messages and work-related stuff.