Deception State Park, WA

August 4, 2017

On the way to the PNTA event in Washington, we stopped in Winthrop overnight because I wanted to add it to my 2018 town guide. While far from the trail, it’s a full service town and some hikers have been going there. There is a hostel in town and we stayed in one of the private cabins, which was very nice. The bathrooms are in the main house, but the cabin was very new and had AC (it was very hot). There was a PCT hiker there who we chatted with and drove back to the trail at Rainy Pass the next morning. On the way, we stopped at Mazama, which is a potential hiker re-supply point especially for PCTer’s, but PNT hikers can get off at Harts Pass also to get there or to hitch into Winthrop. Ravensong, a PCT trail angel, has a hiker hostel in Mazama, though she may only be open September and October. I’ll put it in the book also. Winthrop is accessible as well from the Ross Lake parking lot on Route 20, though it’s a 60 mile hitch. There are plenty of cars on Route 20 so it’s probably not too hard to get a ride. The town has lots of restaurants, a nice coffee place, Rockinghorse Bakery, and two gear shops.

Group Meeting

August 5, 2017

We attended the Pacific Northwest Trail Association’s event at Deception State Park in Washington that featured a presentation by Ron Strickland and a showing of Alex Maier’s film, Sense of Direction. Quite a few hikers attended. Rebecca and John Roberts hosted many of the attendees; we arrived on Friday August 4 and were lucky to get one of the inside rooms. Freebird and Raven were there also – it was good to catch up with him. He has been hiking almost non-stop for years, including having completed the Te Aroroa trail in New Zealand. The crowd on Friday night for the Roberts’ BBQ was not too big, but Saturday night tons of the people were camped out in their backyard! As part of the event, Yeti and I went on a short hike in the park. One of the local people who showed up ended up “guiding” the hike as we arrived late and missed the official group. Sue turned out to be great. She was knowledgeable about plants as well as the area. The PNTA had a tent set up with an information table to educate the public about the trail and to promote membership. Lewis was there doing trail maintenance demos cutting logs. We went to a talk on interpretation and went to Ron’s talk and the documentary. We all headed back to The Happy House after. The youngsters stayed up pretty late, so we didn’t get much sleep. We’d be leaving very early the next morning as we wanted to go all the way home in one day! Long drive. The weather cooperated and was not too hot, but smoke was evident even in Washington at the coast. It’s a bad fire year. PNT hikers are being affected with fires in MT and Washington in the Pasayten.