Ever since I started the Pacific Northwest Trail last year, it seems part of me has been thinking ahead to when the trail might feel easier. Glacier National Park, where I the began the trail, and the area just west of that was difficult last year because there was still quite a bit of snow. I was often slogging through deep snow and constantly had wet feet. Then, even before I was off the snow, there were weeks of really high temperatures. I had multiple days when it was over 100 degrees and weeks where it never got below the mid 90s. Walking in that was brutal, especially on exposed, paved road walks or on steep, long climbs. To add to the difficulty, there were big fires in Canada causing so much smoke on the trail some people were hiking in N 95 masks.

The bushwhacks were hard, especially the one referred to as the lions head. And all of this hiking was done when my foot was hurting. It took me weeks of hiking in pain before I learned I had three broken bones in my foot. Even though it was the first time I had to stop a trail before I reached my end goal, I was relieved to have a good reason to stop.

The flat Florida Trail, which I hiked this winter, turned out to be a lot more difficult for me since I hiked most of it on crutches in an orthopedic boot due to yet a different broken bone in the same foot. When I got back on the PNT this year, I was really ready for some easier hiking. I looked forward to the beauty of the northern Cascades, as well as that of coastal Washington.

From there, I had what I thought would be an easy dirt road walk. Part of it turned out to be an extremely challenging, unpleasant for me, bushwhack. To make matters worse, I had some posterior tendinitis acting up and causing me pain.

While the Cascades and the coast are beautiful, they were far from easy. I had to do fairly long food carries of 100 miles in the Cascades, which made my pack heavy and always makes hiking more difficult. In a previous blog I talked about the 2500 blow downs per mile which slowed me down to a pace of nine hours for 4 miles. The trail was a bit easier when I reached the part that coincides with the Pacific Crest Trail, but that didn’t last very long and by the time I reached it I was feeling pretty beat up. Then, when I was walking what would have been easier miles along the peninsula, I was dealing with Topo boots that had serious flaws in them, causing the inner and outer liner to shrink at different levels when they got wet. This caused a horrible ridge inside the boot along the top of my toes. I had my La Sportiva boots from the Florida Trail mailed to me in Lyman, but the whole time I was on the Peninsula, the tops of my toes were in recovery mode from having been rubbed raw by the Topo boots.

Then I entered the Olympic mountains, which presented me with some of the steepest hiking I’ve ever done. I’m not exaggerating when I say there were sections that were at a 40 and 50% grade. That’s pushing the edge of what can be done without ropes. Some of these steep sections were on exposed cliffs that dropped down 1000 feet or more. At times, I was terrified.

Then one day I made it to some hot springs right off the trail. I planned for a couple of relaxing hours at the springs. The water was too hot to sit in for more than 15 minutes or so, and even that was pushing it. I had to keep pouring cold water over my head to cool myself down. But as all my muscles and joints relaxed, I thought about what I wanted in life and how I’ve been waiting a long time for not just this trail, but for all of my life, to seem easier. It struck me in that hot springs that I had to stop WAITING for anything to be easier. If I wanted it to be easier, I had to make it so. In that moment, I pulled out my maps and studied them. The main route of the PNT goes down the Bogachiel River Valley. I had been told by numerous people there would be ten miles of pushing through brambles and thorns over my head since no trail maintenance had recently been done in that area. I was not looking forward to that and wanted to enjoy walking among the giant trees in the rainforests. In studying my maps, I realized I could drop down a side trail into the Hoh rainforest, which I suspected was better cared for since there was a park visitor center along that trail. It sounded lovely to me. An added bonus was that it shortened by a little bit how many miles I had to walk. I was able to cut back on each of the next three days to about 13 miles a day which is much more relaxing than 17 miles.

While the Hoh Rainforest Trail was pleasant, I won’t say it was completely as easy as I had expected. There was a long steep descent with over 30 switchbacks and an equal amount of blow downs. These were quite large trees that I had to struggle to get over. Sometimes I went over a tree only to hit a switchback and have to go over or under the same tree again. I also had a few stream crossings, one of which came almost up to my crotch. But in general this trail was easier than what I had been walking and I was able to focus on the beauty of the large trees without pushing through vegetation over my head. Rather than struggling to complete each mile I was able to more fully enjoy the walking.

After getting out of the Hoh rainforest (in the rain, though there is a drought going on there now), Kelly picked me up and drove me to Port Angeles where there are Trail Angels named Kindabird and SOS. They had met years ago when hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and are now parenting an energetic, smart, delightful five-year-old.

Aligned with my decision to create more ease in my life, I took a zero day and really enjoyed my time with this wonderful family in a home surrounded by books, good food and love.

As I planned my days for the last section of trail, which is the northwestern Washington coast, I decided to keep it easy on myself by only planning about 10 miles per day. I soon discovered that even ten mile days on this coastal trail is not easy, but that’s for another blog.

Making the conscious decision to create the change I want rather than waiting for it has made this trail much more fun for me. Now I look forward to seeing what changes this will bring to my non-hiking life.

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