Border Push

If the beautiful Pasayten Wilderness could ever look dystopian, then this was it. Smoke from a nearby wildfire dumping new gloom over the old gloom of a burn scar is a bit of a mood kill on a hike. But, after all that we had hiked through to get to this point, we didn’t dwell on it. We just masked up and moved. Even though it was hard to hike our usual pace in N-95 masks, we were “serious as” about getting to the border.

Incredibly, the rising sun seemed to lift the smoke. Although the burned forest was still there, it was trying hard to turn into pretty morning. Bit by bit, the smoke was clearing.

Eventually we got out of the burn scar, and the smoke was blown a few valleys over. We hiked north along Sand Ridge toward Peeve Pass, and were able to take our masks off after a while. Right before we got to the pass, we noticed a black bear ahead of us, just off the trail.

Not sure what spooked him, but he was making good time down the mountain side. I often wonder about what animals do when they can smell a wildfire but can’t see it, and I can’t tell if this bear was happy or stressed out. Hopefully this is a happy bear! This isn’t the first bear we’ve seen on the PCT, but it’s the only one we managed to catch on camera.

Not long after our bear sighting we crossed the Pacific Northwest Trail and rounded Sheep Mountain, the last major landmark before the border.

Woohoooo!!!! 🙂

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