High Bridge, the Stehekin River
September 22nd, 2007 by Cathie
We were happy to learn from the ranger at High Bridge that Jeanne was not the injured hiker, and that the victim was safely extracted by helicopter and is now in a Seattle hospital. Thru-hikers assisted with her rescue, but she and her husband were just out on a short vacation.
Four times a day, between June 14 and October 7, a shuttle bus comes from the village of Stehekin to the trailhead at High Bridge over the Stehekin River. Samwise, Ghost, Nutz and I crossed the deep gorge of Agnes Creek on a temporary swinging bridge moments before we reached the bus stop.
The eleven mile ride on an old school bus follows the Stehekin River to the western most point of Lake Chelan. The river is fascinating: The bed is filled with gray, white and rose colored smooth round stones; the water a sparkling pale blue, in glorious sunshine. Granite mountains border this 55 mile long lake, and today it is being wind-whipped to whitecaps.
On the way to the village we passed a guest ranch, several campgrounds, the famous Stehekin Bakery, the post office, and finally reach the lodge at the boat landing. You can only get to Stehekin by trail as we did, or by boat or seaplane from the town of Chelan at the other end of the lake.
We checked in at the lodge where we plan to take a zero day tomorrow.
We found Glacier, Allegheny, Tony (the dark haired, not the red head), Thirty Thirty, WingIt, Stick, Stretch, Fireball and Hot Chocolate. Billy Goat arrived later in the afternoon. WingIt, Stick and Stretch started the trail with us, and it was great to see them one last time.
Unbelievably, it is almost done. What a journey this has been! What a beautiful place to take a day for contemplation. I need to catch my breath to fully realize what we have accomplished, the joys we have known, and our gratitude for all the people who have supported us.
Some of the hikers here took the route we did around Boulder Pass, others braved the damaged original PCT. The review on that varied from “horrible, the most frightened I have ever been” to “not too bad.”
But with lousy weather, Tony said he never even saw Glacier Peak, and at least we got some views from Buck Pass.
Hundreds of blow downs, many of them old growth and GIANT, still need to be cleared. Work crews are putting in bridges over the glacier fed creeks and rivers, but they are starting with the easiest. That left the big Suiattle River to be crossed on a downed tree.
The river, from pictures, looks to be at least a hundred feet across. The tree is large, and no one would have any problem walking on it if it was laying on the ground. But 10 to 15 feet above a rushing, churning river - you have to stay very focused.
Allegheny said he felt dizzy, and had to sit down and straddle the log and scoot across. Samwise and I agree we would do the same. We can’t figure out why the forest service doesn’t just attach a hand rail to the log, like we’ve seen in other places. A cheap short term safety measure. You can go to Thirty Thirty’s journal (trail journals.com) and find pictures and maybe his video of Allegheny getting across.
By the way, I believe it was Thirty Thirty and Tony who helped with the rescue of the injured hiker. Because they were with Ladybug when she fell, that’s the second one for them in two weeks.
Thirty Thirty called Ladybug today. She had surgery to help mend her leg which was fractured in more than 10 places. She is feeling down because this was her second attempt at the PCT. You can learn more about her story on her journal at trail journals.com.
If you are one of my co-workers, reading all this stuff, you’d better stop and go back to work. I’ll see you soon. Barring any disaster in the last 90 miles, I am on schedule for a safe return. Don’t know how useful I will be, though.
