Day 25: The Northport Death March

August 9: I woke up to dark and cloudy skies. It didn't rain nor was rain in the forecast, but the worst of the hot temperatures had passed and not a day too soon!

The day started with a few miles gravel road walk.

I hit the trail at a normal 6:00am start time. The first few miles followed a gravel road from the campground to a rural highway--then there was a long, 20-mile road walk along the highway into Northport.

Twenty miles! On a paved road! With fast-moving traffic! It was completely and utterly flat so in that regard, the day's hike was easy, but that was the only easy aspect. Other than that, the road walk was completely miserable.

Well, the other nice thing about the highway--at least it wasn't very busy with traffic. The first few hours of walking, I could count on one hand the number of vehicles that passed me. As the day wore on, the traffic picked up but it was never super busy. At its worst, a car would pass me every five minutes or so.

There was no privacy along the road so when I had to pee, I'd wait for a break in the traffic and pee on the shoulder of the road. There were trees at times alongside the road, but fences or thick vegetation generally kept me away from using those for privacy.

Most of the day was spent on this massive 20-mile road walk into Northport! Horrible, horrible road walk....

I also thanked my lucky stars that the brutal temperatures from yesterday had broken. The elevation was low and it was likely near 100 degrees along this road walk the day before. A whopping 100 degrees on a paved road probably could have melted the shoes off my feet! Temperatures were still uncomfortably warm and the air was humid--but definitely not 100 degrees warm! So temperatures were working in my favor.

The road makes a wide turn around a mountain range coming within 500 feet of the Canadian border. The trail is always fairly close to the Canadian border, but this was closer than usual. I could practically throw a rock and hit Canada.

About halfway through the road walk, I reached a small convenience store, gas station and shipping provider located just on this side of the border. I stopped for a rest in the shade of the building and bought a Klondike Bar and Coke to refresh myself. I also kicked off my shoes for a bit while relaxing.

Cars came and went and I noticed a large number of them were Canadian. Out of curiosity, I asked one of them where they were from and he pointed over the border. Just a short way over the border in Canada, he told me, but he likes to drive here to get gas because gas is so much cheaper in the US. Apparently shipping is a big border business as well because his wife went inside to mail a large package. It seemed like all the Canadians who stopped picked up gas, and it seemed split about 50/50 about whether they were picking up a shipment or sending one.

Eventually I put my shoes back on and continued the long road walk into Northport.

I bought a Klondike bar and Coke at the convenience store--and kicked off my shoes for a bit. They were throbbing from the road walk!

I arrived in Northport at about 4:00 in the afternoon. I passed some cabins at the edge of town and tried calling the provided number to see if I could get a room for myself, but the guy said they were full. My guidebook mentioned a B&B further into town, but the phone number I had didn't work so I walked into town to check it out--and it was clear that the business had gone out of business. Nope, I couldn't spend the night there either.

And that was it for official lodging in town. But there was one other place I might be able to stay.... a couple of trail angels that often allowed hikers to camp on the lawn of their backyard. I wasn't excited about it--I really wanted to get indoors for the night because there was rain in the forecast overnight, but I literally had nowhere else to go.

So I headed to their place and introduced myself to Jami and Josh. Josh caught me as he was leaving the house to walk their dog and Jami was watering the lawn in back. They were both so welcoming and friendly! Jami gave me a walk through of the facilities--where to shower, towels to use, laundry, etc. I almost didn't want to do laundry--I had left Metaline Falls just two days earlier and didn't actually feel all that dirty--but I knew I would later and it was probably best to wash clothes every chance I had.

This poor little guy was trying to commit suicide on the road!

I admitted to them that they were my last resort because I had wanted to stay indoors due to the chance of rain overnight and Jami said that that wasn't a problem and said I could stay in their guest room. Awesome! I was officially the 27th hiker of 2019 that they hosted. Last year, they told me, they had 35 hikers for the year and I wondered if that meant there were another 8 hikers behind me?

I settled in and chatted with them for a bit, then said something about going to the market to resupply. Jami said that they closed in 13 minutes so I better rush. Yikes! I practically ran out of the house and to the market, quickly running through the store and throwing stuff into my basket.

By the time I reached the checkout stand, they had already turned off the open sign and were locking the door--but they did finish ringing up my basket of supplies. I had made it--and just in the nick of time. If I missed it, they wouldn't open again until 10:00 or something the next morning--long after I had hoped to leave town.

Jami cooked a delicious curry and rice meal that she was happy to share with me and we all chatted about the trail the rest of the night. I was really glad I ended up here for the night. It was tempting to get sucked in and stay an extra night, but no, I still had miles to do and places to go! I wasn't prepared to spend a zero day in Northport!

This poor little guy did commit suicide on the road! I found four or five them along the road walk, but this was the least bloody of them.

So I'm confused.... can I cross or not? Make up your mind!!!

You get the feeling that the neighbors around these parts aren't very friendly. I got the distinct feeling that I was in redneck country.

Hello, Canada! I see you! =)

This is the Columbia River shortly after crossing into the United States. It looks a lot smaller here than it does when it passes Portland! (Which is where I'm most used to see the river.) But it's still a sizeable river....

This gas station is a popular stop for Canadians popping over the border. In fact, I feel pretty confident that this place wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Canadians popping over the border.

Columbia River

That's Northport ahead! The PNT crosses the Columbia River on the bridge in the distance. (But I wouldn't cross it until leaving town tomorrow.)

This sign made me laugh. It basically sounds like, "We were puny then, and we're punier now!"

The plaque on the chimney describes the Northport smelter which once processed gold, copper and lead ores from local mines. This monument is only a replica--the last remnants of the smelter were covered over in 2004 during an environmental cleanup.

Day 24: The Day I Maced Myself. Twice.

August 8: I woke up early by trail-town standards. I wanted to get an early start to the day's hike since temperatures were expected to break 100 degrees this afternoon in Metaline Falls. The earlier I started, the cooler it would be! And most of the day would climb steadily upwards. Up and up and up and up.... Every thousand feet up would knock 4 degrees off the highs and I wanted to get as high as possible as quickly as possible.

The hallway in the Washington Hotel

But I did splurge and instead of my usual cereal for breakfast, I treated myself to a meal at the restaurant next door. Farm-something-something, I don't remember. They opened at 6:00am and I was the first customer to walk in the door.

I ordered a meal that consisted of a waffle, egg and sausage. It didn't fill me up, though, and it seemed a little expensive for how much I got. I wanted to leave town with a stomach that was solidly full! Oh, well....

After breakfast, I headed back to the hotel where I brushed my teeth and packed up my bag before hitting the trail at 7:00am.

The trail crosses over the Pend Oreille River on a bridge leaving Metaline Falls.

The first several miles out of town was the continuation of the paved road walk--not fun by any stretch, but at least it wasn't a busy highway! At least it wasn't one at this early in the morning.

At a curve in the road, the trail veered off onto a gravel forest service road but I saw Ryan hiking backward along the road. Where was he coming from?! That was the wrong direction! Although I didn't actually realize it at first having not recognized the turn onto the gravel road as the direction of the trail. When I saw Ryan, I thought he was just hiking the wrong direction on the trail!

"The trail is that way!" he said, pointing down the gravel road. I looked at my map. Indeed it was. "I walked about a mile in the wrong direction!"

I could hear the annoyance in his voice and I couldn't blame him. I'd have been annoyed too. But I was glad he caught me where he did because otherwise, I might have made the very same mistake.

I jokingly suggested that his trailname should be "Off-Trail" because all three times I had run into him now, he was off the trail! Although I didn't know it at the time, this was the last time our paths would cross. He hiked faster than me and I could see him pull ahead on the trail for a mile or two before I stopped to fill up with water and he rounded the turn never to be seen again. (Well, I'm sure other people saw him--just not me.)

My suggested trailname didn't stick, though, as I noticed that he continued to sign registers ahead of me as "Ryan" instead of Off-Trail.

That's Ryan ahead of me on the trail

I picked up a whopping 6 liters of water--the most I had ever carried on the trail to get through a long dry stretch. Normally I wouldn't have carried this much--not even for such a long dry stretch--but with temperatures forecasted to break 100 degrees in the area, I wanted all the water I could carry!

The paved road was mostly flat but the gravel road immediately charged into the mountains and the long uphill slog began. It would be a long 5,000-foot climb almost to the top of Abercombie Mountain--the highest point in Stevens County and the second-highest point in eastern Washington. There's also a class of mountain called an ultra-prominent peak, and Abercombie is one of only 57 mountains in the United States with a 5000-foot rise. In the entire world, there are only about 1,500 such peaks.

The trail followed the forest service road most of the distance to the top--a strong and steady up but never steep--but the trail barely misses the actual summit. I arrived near the summit at 3:00 in the afternoon and it was hot but--being about 5000 feet higher than Metaline Falls--I calculated that it was likely 20 degrees cooler way up here--perhaps topping out at 80 degrees. Still hot, but a heck of an improvement over the 100 degrees in town!

The gravel road finally became an actual trail near the summit of Abercombie.

I thought about taking the short side trail to the summit but decided I was too tired and it was too hot to bother. Anyhow, it was really quite hazy so the views weren't all that great comparatively speaking.

The high point of the trail provided no shade, so I continued down the trail until I reached a nice, wooded area that provided plenty of shade for a good, long break to beat the heat of the day.

I ate snacks, read my Kindle and lingered for over an hour. Then... then I pulled out my extra can of bear spray. Ryan was the only hiker I had seen on the trail all day and I knew for a fact he was ahead of me on. There were no vehicles at the trailhead. It seemed extremely unlikely that anyone was close behind me on the trail. If there was another thru-hiker behind me, they would have spent the night in Metaline Falls and if that were the case, I'd have likely bumped into them at some point. Nope, I was convinced that I was as alone as I could get. There might not have been a single living person within miles of my current location.

And I wanted to shoot off the whole can of bear spray. =)

I had a whole can of bear spray to shoot off. Sounds like fun! =)

I wanted to check two things: duration and distance. I would record the experience on video so I didn't have to time the duration. I could just check it on the video later. The distance... I didn't have any good way to measure distance, but I remembered reading that the average person's step is about 3 feet, so I figured the bear spray should shoot 10 or 11 steps or so. I paced off the distance so I could get a sense of how far the bear spray might go.

I packed up my backpack so I could leave in a hurry. Just in case something went horribly wrong or a gust of wind blew the bear spray back in my direction, I wanted to be able to grab the pack and run! I was prepared for a quick getaway!

I also smartly decided to shoot the bear spray up the trail from where I came. It would have been pretty stupid of me to shoot it down the trail where I still needed to hike!

The wind was absolutely calm. I couldn't detect even the slightest breeze, and the trees were quiet. I stood on my mark and fired a couple of quick shots. The videos I had watched about how to use the bear spray suggested two short one-second blasts and, if a bear was still attacking, to shoot the rest of the thing off. I wanted to simulate that so these first shots weren't a duration test--this was the distance test.

The orange mist shot forward, expanding as the distance increased. It didn't appear to reach the mark I had expected it to, but it came close. I was about to turn around when I noticed a large quantity of moths fly out from a tree and flutter around in a growing cloud. It was kind of hypnotic--and clearly an effect of the bear spray. Those moths were probably sound asleep, minding their own business and waiting for it to get dark to come out then woke up to me testing bear spray and totally freaked out. I felt a little bad for them. I hadn't been planning to shoot a bunch of moths with my bear spray, and it certainly wasn't a direct hit because the moths weren't even out when I shot it down the trail, but the gas must have drifted to their nest or wherever moths hang out.

I watched the fluttering mass grow as the moths spread out looking for clean air. Then... I felt it. A punch to my eyes and nostrils. It wasn't windy, but the bear spray was dissipating in all directions--including where I stood! I fell back, coughing and crying. I grabbed my camera which I had set on a stump to capture the action and dashed out on an intersecting trail to get away from the cloud of gas.

My eyes teared up and my nostrils burned. I was fascinated by the experience, despite how uncomfortable it was. And I wasn't even directly hit by the gas--I only got a partial hit of the expanding cloud as it was dissipating.

I caught my breath after a short while, but I still had most of a can of bear spray--basically pepper spray or mace--and I still wanted to do the duration test.

This looks like a nice, empty section of trail to shoot the bear spray!

I decided to shoot the rest of the can off on the side trail where I was now located. It would leave the trail where I needed to hike out clear of bear spray! That was still my exit!

This time, I held the camera in one hand as I shot off the bear spray in the other hand and counted off the seconds. One... two... three... A large, orange cloud filled the air, growing in size with each passing second. It was hypnotic to watch. Six... seven...

The can started sputtering, coming to a complete stop a second later.

And in the excitement, I totally forgot about the lesson I learned from my first shot: the dissipating cloud of bear spray would expand. I should have started running away the second I finished off the can, but I didn't--and the very thick expanding cloud of gas hit my face almost immediately. It was far worse than the first hit I got!

I fell back, wounded. OMG! I coughed, I cried. The horror!

I rushed back to my pack at the trail intersection which, for the time being, seemed safe. I drank some water and wiped the tears from my eyes, and rubbed my eyes. This stuff was horrible!

I noticed a line of orange that had dribbled down from the nozzle of the bear spray and knew I didn't want to touch it. I tried to rinse it off with water but it seemed stuck on the label. I finally put the can in not one, but two ziplock bags. The can was empty, but I still needed to pack it out and I didn't want that can touching anything inside of my pack! It was a biohazard now! So I doubled bagged it with ziplocks then added it to a third ziplock containing my trash.

All the while my eyes teared up and I coughed and had trouble speaking for the camera, trying to find words to describe the horrible feeling.

I couldn't believe I maced myself... TWICE! The first time, okay--lesson learned. Or should have been learned. But the second time.... just plain stupidity. I got hypnotized by the orange cloud of gas.

Of course there has to be a video!

Finally done cleaning up my mess, I put on my pack and started hiking. No reason to hang around here anymore!

It was near 5:00 when I got moving again--temperatures were miserably hot but at this point, they should be cooling down. Except they really didn't because the trail descended thousands and thousands of feet. It seemed like the cooling afternoon temperatures were compensated by my falling elevation so the temperature felt like it stayed constant for the next few hours.

I finally arrived at Silver Creek--my goal for the day since it was the first water source of a long, dry stretch. I was surprised to find two women at the creek washing their hair in it. What the hell?! That was my drinking water! Where the hell had they come from anyhow? I was pissed at them and didn't even greet them with a hi. I set down my pack and positioned myself upstream of them to collect water. I certainly didn't want to drink the water downstream of them that was filled with soap and whatever else they had in their hair.

Filled up with water, I continued down the trail looking for a place to camp when I walked into a... campground. An actual campground with a pit-toilet and vehicles parked in various campsites. My map didn't say anything about a campground here! I was lonely on the trail and would have loved to camp with a couple of other hikers, but hanging out in a crowded campground wasn't what I had in mind. That certainly explained where the two girls came from. Couldn't go one night without washing their hair.

But it was starting to get dark and I was tired and I needed a place to stop so I walked around the campground looking for an empty site. I found it, threw out my groundsheet and called it a day. At least I had a comfortable picnic table to cook dinner at and sit.

I thought I'd be camping in the wild, but I wound up at this campground!

I assumed there was some sort of fee to camp here but I hadn't driven in and never saw a board about how to pay or where to pay so I didn't worry it. If someone came up and asked me to pay, I would, but otherwise, I wasn't going to run around figuring out how it worked. I hadn't expected there to be a campground when I arrived!

I was surprised to see Seattle City Light out here. It's a long way to Seattle! But it's nice to see the area where our electricity comes from. =)

I was a little disappointed that the trail didn't go past Gardner Caves. So close and yet so far! I'd have loved to have checked out the caves.

There was a horrible murder-suicide on the trail here. A tree fell and took out another tree! The crime tape seemed a little unnecessary, though....

The last section of trail downhill to the campground had a lot of trail work recently done. It was amazing!

Day 23: Gold Mining around Metaline Falls

August 7: I woke up and hit the trail with a normal 6:00am start time. The trail today followed Noisy Creek downstream for several miles to Sullivan Lake, dropping a couple of thousand feet in elevation along the way.

At the lake was a paid campground where I was able to throw out my trash and use the pit toilets before I continued onward along the length of Sullivan Lake.

Sullivan Lake

At the far end of Sullivan Lake, the trail merged onto roads that would lead the last 8 miles into the small town of Metaline Falls. First it followed gravel roads, but that section didn't last for more than a mile or so. Then it was paved roads the rest of the way into town.

About halfway through the road walk, I stopped at a small pullout next to Sullivan Creek. There were some large boulders I could sit on, and it was in the shade--shade was essential for such a hot day! And I noticed a weird-looking contraption on the other side of the creek. It was resting on the far shore and it looked like a small boat, but so small I couldn't imagine that anyone would fit into it easily.

Then I realized that contraption at the back looked like a sluice box. And if that was a sluice box, then it must be a dredge for mining gold! Was there gold mining out here?! There was no one around the presumed dredge, but I felt absolutely certain that that was a gold mining dredge. I had no idea that there was gold mining in Washington state!

This looked like a gold mining dredge on the far shore! There was gold out here?!

About a half hour later, an older man walked up on the road. He had a long, graying beard, leathery skin and I guessed he was maybe 60 years old. He wore a bluish T-shirt and beige shorts that looked well-worn and gave off a homeless vibe. Not that that's a criticism--I too was giving off a homeless vibe, no doubt! And he wore a handgun on his hip.

It seemed like a total stereotype but the first thought that popped into my head was: This guy looks like a gold miner!

It might have been a stereotype, but I was also right. That was his dredge on the other side of the creek and he was camped out at a pullout on the road just ahead. We chatted for several minutes and I asked him about his dredge and gold mining in general--mostly because I was just curious. I'd never run into an actual gold miner on my adventures!

He said he spent 7 hours yesterday working with the dredge and getting down to the bedrock (where the gold was located) was the hard part. I asked if it was okay to ask how much gold he found--I didn't want to be rude if that's a touchy subject, but how could I not be curious?! And he pulled out a vile with flecks of gold. It was, he told me, what he had found yesterday. It didn't look like much, and I asked how much it was worth. "Maybe $20 or so."

This is what $20 of gold and 7 hours of work look like.

Yeah, not worth much. Not a lot of money for 7 hours of presumably brutal work under a hot sun. Definitely not a career I wanted to get in--although it might be fun to gold mine for a couple of hours just as a novelty. And he needed a gun to protect himself from someone wanting to rob him of $20 of gold? Well, maybe yesterday was a bad day and normally he had more gold on him. Maybe....? I don't think knocking over gold miners would probably net much money. Not out here, at least!

I wanted to take a photo of his gold, but he said I should really go out in the sun for the photo because it really sparkled well in the sun. I so didn't want to go out in the sun, but I did anyhow and the gold positively glittered! Very pretty. I could see why people would be enchanted with the stuff.

I also asked if he was the only person mining for gold or if there were others and he said there were others. It didn't sound like there were a lot of others, but he wasn't alone. His friend, he told me, had found a "picker" yesterday. He said it as if it was the biggest news to hit the region in years.

I was fascinated. In return, he was curious about us PNT hikers. He already knew I was thru-hiking the PNT--he's seen PNT hikers pass by for years and knew what we were doing out there, so his questions were more about the route of the trail. What towns did it go through, what passes did it cross over. That sort of thing. He knew the trail went through Northport and wanted to know how it got from here to Northport.

Eventually our conversation ran out and he left. He waded across the creek to his dredge and started walking it downstream to his campsite just out of view.

There wasn't much of a shoulder to walk on during the last few curves of the road into Metaline Falls.

I picked up my pack and continued on toward Metaline Falls. The road walk, despite being paved, wasn't too horrible since it wasn't very busy. That is... until the trail merged onto Highway 31. That highway was a very busy road and a little scary to walk on. The last part into town, the road snaked around blind curves with almost no shoulder. That was the scariest part, and whenever I approached those areas I'd look for a break in the traffic then dash through the curve as quickly as possible.

I made it into Metaline Falls at about 2:00 in the afternoon. The thermometer outside the hotel read 85 degrees when I arrived--and temperatures were still rising. They typically peaked at around 4:00 in the afternoon and by 5:00, it would start cooling again. Ugh... so freaking hot!

It was about 85 degrees (in the shade!) when I arrived in town.... and still heating up!

I checked into the Washington Hotel. The historic hotel was built in 1910 and, although primitive by modern times, was absolutely charming with period furniture and decor. The hotel was mostly full when I arrived--filled with construction workers working on a nearby project. Included as part of the price for the room, Tiffany gave me a scoop of ice cream from the store downstairs. On a hot day like today, it was heaven!

I was the only hiker there, but they had a hiker box that I checked out.

And... I was intrigued by the two bear sprays that were left there. Were they left by hikers who quit the trail here? Hikers who decided that they didn't need no stupid bear spray slowing them down anymore? Or were they left by hikers who felt that it wasn't needed anymore now that we were getting outside of grizzly country? Officially, my maps still said we were in grizzly country, but we were definitely at the outside range where they could possibly been seen.

But there were a couple of thoughts that floated through my head about the bear spray. Almost everyone thru-hiking this trail hikes from east to west. It's how the maps and guidebooks are labeled and its extremely unlikely that any hiker who had hiked this far would suddenly need bear spray. The bear spray would probably sit here for decades to come!

And my other thought--even if someone did have a use for bear spray--should they rely on a can of it that may or may not be full? There was no way to tell if the bear spray might have been used and if your life depends on it, do you want a can that might be half full?

I wouldn't! But it gave me an idea. I could take a can for myself and just shoot it off in the woods. Shoot off the whole can! I had sprayed the can I carried for a half-second just to get a sense of how it worked, but now I could test a can and empty the entire thing! It's supposed to last at least 7 seconds... but does it really? It's supposed to shoot 30-odd feet... but does it really? I could find out! I could test it!

I grabbed one of the cans for myself. I'd never shoot off my own can just for fun--these things were $30+ and I didn't want to waste the money. Well, I had thought about shooting my can off in four years when it reached its expiration date, but now I didn't have to wait for four years!

The historic Washington Hotel was built in 1910 and was absolutely charming!

Eventually I headed back outside. I ate lunch at the 5th Avenue Bar and Grill--an unassuming place with overpriced food. The food was okay--not great, but okay--but they charged prices like it was great food. Afterwards, I still felt a little hungry and headed to the nearby market to do some grocery shopping.

I also ran into Ryan who had arrived into Metaline Falls earlier in the morning. He didn't make it here last night like he had wanted to and was planning to camp in the yard of a trail angel for free which is why I didn't see him at the hotel. I was tired of camping, though, and preferred the comforts of indoor when I was in town. I suspected his budget for the PNT was smaller than mine as well, but I still had an income even while I was hiking--a luxury that most people did not get.

I checked the thermometer outside the hotel at 8:00 in the evening and it was now reading 90 degrees. Ugh! How hot had it gotten earlier in the day? Temperatures had already been cooling for over 3 hours and it was still 90 degrees out! So miserably hot....

There was no air-conditioning at the hotel, which isn't a surprise for a building built in 1910, but there was a fan in my room that I was happy to use and I opened the window to let in air, but the room was still uncomfortably warm and I sweat buckets just laying in bed.

I eventually headed off to sleep, but temperatures were not supposed to improve over the next several days. In fact, tomorrow's forecast showed that Metaline Falls was expected to break 100 degrees tomorrow. Ugh! I needed to get an early morning start tomorrow, and the earlier, the better!

Sullivan Lake

And the 8-mile road walk into town begins!

Just 7 more miles to go! I was also amused to see the sign for a "public phone" to the left. Do those still exist?! Apparently so! But they're so unusual, they have to post signs to help you find them.

Sullivan Creek--there is gold in that thar creek!

I felt right at home! =)