July 5

Distance today: 5.0 miles

Mile marker: 80.7

We stayed at the Bridge Creek campsite at North Cascades National Park last night. We ran into a fellow hiker yesterday who claimed they might have covid and was trying to get the first bus into Stehekin. We opted to have a slower morning and take the second bus in. After an easy breezy 5 mile hike where we passed some trail crews and a beautiful alpine lake, we reached the bus pickup spot at High Bridge with an hour to spare. We chatted with the volunteer ranger a bit, and he said the next section was his favorite.

We were a bit nervous that the bus might be full and we didn’t have reservations, but were relieved when a repurposed yellow school bus came rumbling up the road.

The first stop was the famous bakery: the Stehekin Pastry Company. We both got sticky buns and a coffee.

When we arrived at the “town,” we were a bit surprised by actually how small it was. Literally a restaurant, store, and dock. But it was cute with undertones of hiding a dark secret.

We found our campsite, pitched our tent, got cleaned up at the public showers and laundry, chatted with other hikers including catching up with some who flew passed us but rested up in town, and found the free and slow wifi to check in with the world, at least a little. Then we mosied to dinner at the one restaurant. Jason got a Caesar salad with grilled chicken (missing crunchy veggies) and Alex got the burger. The restaurant’s runner, making some WILD assumptions, gave Alex the salad and Jason the burger.

Jason watched the sun set over the mountains towering over Lake Chelen while Alex hunted for more wifi. The group campsite was packed! It’s crazy to think that this town can even handle the northbound hikers (3x southbound).

We have our box at the post office (we hope) and didn’t know you could call ahead to ask them to leave it out for off hours pickup. So we’re committed to taking a zero day tomorrow. Maybe it’s foolish to rest this early, but repetitive stress injuries are a common reason people have to leave the trail. We’re playing it safe in preparation for our long climb out of Stehekin Valley.