Pacific Crest Quest

On our second night on the trail, we stayed near Deep Lake on our way to Stevens Pass. After the catwalk area, the trail quickly turned difficult due to the constant clog of downed trees. At times we were only able to make about a mile of progress an hour, as we had to constantly dismount and clear a path or find a way around an obstacle. #2014PCT

Soon after Snoqualmie, we began climbing steeply among the jagged peaks that surrounded the "catwalk" section of the PCT. #2014PCT

Although a lot of the PCT has been narrow and often threaded its way along tops of mountain ridgelines, the "catwalk" proved particularly dramatic with it's spectacular views of the steep mountainsides around us. This is a shot looking back at Alina and Bub as we made our way north through this area. #2014PCT

Takoda and I raced back to Ellensburg after our sprint to the border in order to join up with Alina and her horse, as we are going to ride some of the Washington sections together. I first got to meet Alina and her horse Bub (trail names "Nightrider" and "Valentino") in Ebbett's Pass, but she has been a kind of mentor to me throughout this ride, as she completed a thru-ride last year and spent the year before that researching the trail by driving the entire length of it and

After reaching the border on Monday, Takoda and I still had to backtrack on the same trail along Ross Lake, and we didn't return to our camp until almost 1:00 a.m. due to the difficult state of that part of the trail, with Takoda once again having to make like a gazelle as he hopped over downed trees. I've decided that jumping is Takoda's strength (unlike Shyla, who hates to jump, but is a champion walker who can churn out the miles hour after hour and never seems to get tir

My arm isn't long enough to get Takoda and me AND the border sign, so you'll have to take my word for it that I'm actually at the border here (not quite sure why, but the marching band and welcome committee that I expected wasn't there to meet me . . . nor were there any paparazzi to take my picture for me. At the very least, I really wanted to see a "mountie!"). But I am wearing the "Takoda" t-shirt that my mom bought for me at the restaurant in Sisters, Oregon, in celebrat

The trail along the lake on Sunday was beautiful and well-maintained, and Takoda and I made good time. But on Monday, when we headed to the border and went inland, things changed rapidly for the worse. First of all, the trail ended up being much longer than I realized, and by the time the day was done and I returned to camp, Takoda and I covered about 40 miles. But the worst part was the constant battle with downed trees. Takoda was jumping trees like a grasshopper, and s

Well, we did it--we got to Canada! I know it's not the PCT monument in Manning Park, but it still felt like a tremendous accomplishment to actually reach the northern boundary of the United States, after so many miles and so many obstacles. I still have some parts of Washington to fill in to complete the whole journey (and some sections of the Sierras in California, too), but it is amazing to think that I actually got all this way on horseback. #2014PCT

When I finished that first section in Washington, I drove back to Oregon, where I had left Takoda in the competent hands of the Bend Equine medical center, as I was especially concerned about some scratches on his hind legs that resulted from the fall we took on July 2nd that had been slow to heal. He was looking much better, and I left Shyla at Future Road Farm and with the help of the husband of one of my mom's friends that she grew up with in Topanga, who moved to Bend ye

This is actually an old section of the trail (part of the ride from Scissors Crossing to Barrel Springs) back when I was in Southern California, but it gives you an idea of what the trail looks like at times. We're riding along the spine of a ridge, with quite a view of the landscape below (and there's a pretty funny moment at the end, when I'm trying to figure out how to turn off the camera--I was obviously at the beginning of my learning curve back then!) #wildlifeonthetra