17 miles

Chuchuwanteen Cabin site
PNT Mile 681
1987 ft elevation gain

After just a few miles I caught up to the hiker we saw yesterday evening. He just started the PNT outside of Oroville and is planning on finishing at the Western terminus on the Olympic coast. This would be a very hard first section.

Creative cairns marked the way they some obscure sections.

The rangers at the cabin 2 nights ago said there were still 60 blowdowns on the last 1/4 mile before the Pasayten River. There were only 3 I had to crawl under and several to climb over. But really it wasn’t bad. There definitely weren’t 60. Yay!

Cool PNT logo

A bridge over the river washed out a few years ago. The trail crews cleared a new trail down to the river to a safer and easier place to cross. It didn’t get above my knees. Nice! So I thought that was the hard part of the day.

On the way down to the Pasayten River

But no! After passing the old airfield there were lots of downed trees. The last half mile to the creek and where we had planned to camp was a mess with lots of blowdowns. There was supposed to be an old cabin site with camping near it but I think it was probably somewhere under all those fallen trees. Emma and Chris had gotten there first and couldn’t find it either. We ended up camping at a trail intersection with fallen trees all around us. Not my first choice but it’s late, I’m tired and the ground is flat here.