Thai Kitchen's 2013
Pacific Northwest Trail Journal

Tropical beach? Nope, Upper Priest Lake

I left Ruby Camp nice and early and started walking north along some old, quite forest service roads. My guidebook suggested that the trail ahead was not very well maintained, and could be a miserable, blowdown ridden climb & descent over Shedroof Mountain. My feet were yelling at me to take a break from the moment I woke up, and we agreed that I'd skip a potentially brutal climb and meet up with the trail in a few miles.

I have no idea how far I walked, and it was a little nerve-wracking to be walking without a map or GPS and just following the directions in the book. Luckily, the roads and trails were quite nice and flat, and it felt like I made great time. An old forest service road turned into an amazingly soft trail past Hughes Meadow and back into the mountains. Aside from a few short densely overgrown sections and some significant blowdowns, the trail was flat, easy to follow, and incredibly easy on my feet. It meandered through a cedar forest with some beautiful, large, old trees and scarce undergrowth. The morning sunlight filtering through the dense canopy was just perfect.

A few creek crossings later, I found myself standing at the steep climb up the mountain to meet the official PNT. Halfway up, I plopped down for a little rest break, and found myself surrounded by huckleberries. Jackpot! I stuffed my face, and loudly apologized to any bears that might be nearby for stealing their food. This seemed like a good spot to take a more extended break, and I broke out my granola for lunch. Fresh huckleberry granola on a sunny mountainside just can't be beat!

After lunch, I gained a nice ridge and followed the PNT down to Gypsy Meadows (yes...a second Gypsy Meadows). At the trailhead, I noticed a sign that the Sullivan Ridge trail was closed to the public. I had a 4 mile bushwhack ahead of me up Leola Creek, and then a few more miles on Sullivan Ridge. I'm not sure how you close a trail, but that combined with a bushwhack described as "the worst 4 miles of hiking anywhere in the country" and my ever aching feet convinced me to detour around. I walked for about 8 miles down the Sullivan Creek road before finally accepting a ride from a guy who informed me that I had a looong way to go before reaching the end of the road.

Though I had previously planned to stop at Sullivan Lake for the night, I gave in to his offer to take me all the way into Metaline Falls (I would have just hitched a ride tomorrow morning anyway). I needed a good rest, and planned to take a full zero day in Metaline Falls. He dropped me at the Circle Hotel, 2 miles outside of town and I passed out fairly early. I felt a little bad about having to miss out on ~15 miles of trail today, but I'm here to enjoy myself. I need a rest after 14 straight days of walking. I'm 300 miles in, and though I'm bandaged and tired, I'm feeling great!