Pacific Northwest Trail

[chrisx]

Not a great year for the PNT.

you called that right

http://www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/fire-closes-north-cascades-national-park-campgrounds-trails-resort/

Highway is closed, can not even get to the trail

[ScottM]

Yeah, too bad.  I feel lucky we got to sneak in 24 days in Oregon and a week in Idaho before the fires really got out of control.  I keep seeing more and more closures and fire issues on the PNT facebook group. 

Not a great year, indeed.

[chrisx]

http://www.pnt.org/index.php?cID=646&bID=2830&arHandle=Blog+Post+More&ccm_token=1457490430:72c7838281afc521b563e61d0e793335&btask=passthru&method=form_save_entry#guestBookForm-2647

Article about bikes on the PNT

[ScottM]

Thanks for posting this.  Glad to see there's a dedicated MTB advocate on their committee.  It's been suggested that I join that council as well, but since our thru-trip did not happen last summer, I am hesitant -- knowing so little about the trail.

[chrisx]

A person with expertise on maps could be a great deal of help.  This trail was officially established in (2009?)  Do not forget; it took 70 (?) years for a complete PCT. They need your help.  I tried to get up there last summer.  Highway 20 was on fire and closed.  I had no maps for the west side of Ross lake, and ended up lost.  (Found a nice place to be lost though.)  A couple of years ago I was shut down by mud slides and epic rain.  I stashed my bike in the woods and tried to hike from lake Chelan up to the Pasayten wilderness.  Must be something good up there, if it takes so much effort to get to it.

The Pacific Northwest Trail has a mystical appeal.  Off the thousands of maps in the Seattle central library I always stare at the PNT ones.
http://www.pnt.org/trail/galleries/eastern-washington/

[samh]

Ted Hitzroth and Li Branffors have built excellent maps of the PNT.  Li's are hard to get but Ted's are relatively accessible.

[chrisx]

I will try to swap out the nophotosbucket for a flicker image.

[chrisx]

Looks like they have a new map service, and reason to spend all your money on a new modern phone.
It says PNT maps will be available for 2018
https://www.pnt.org/pnta/maps/maps-mobile-devices/
http://atlasguides.com/

[chrisx]

100 years ago, there was a rock on the ground, then a tree grew up and captured it in its roots, then the tree fell into the ocean, bringing the rock with it, then I stood in the rain, holding my coat out to block the wind, and pressing the shutter button with my left hand.

[chrisx]

It gets cold up there, in the Pasayaten,

You can stand on a ridge and look down at snow that never melted all summer,

I walked up a lot of creeks, tripod in hand, snaping photos of little water falls




<^>






, on Flickr
Olympic wilderness coast is stilll my favorite.

[chrisx]

Flicker works better than trashyourphotosbucket.

[chrisx]

[evdog]

Just seeing this thread now!  

I had heard of the PNW Trail but it wasn't really on my radar until a trip to Montana last fall when some trails I rode turned out to be segments of the PNW Trail.



First up was the Webb Trail on the west side of Lake Koocanusa.  I wasn't aware the PWN Trail extended into Montana so I was a little surprised to see this sign at the bottom




This got me interested to explore a bit more up top as well.  I headed west and found a bit of cool trail but it soon joined an overgrown forest road that kinda sucked.  From what I've read there is a lot of this on the PNW Trail.




Headed back toward the Webb Fire Lookout tower where the descent begins.  Tons of fresh bear sign up there.  Not scat, but entire sections of trail dug up looking for grubs.  The descent was rocky and fun, 3,300ft in 5 miles.





The main target for rides in this area was the Ten Lakes Scenic Area.  Look what I found once again....




Here it is the Highline Trail that is part of the PNW Trail.  




I did three days of riding with each days ride using portions of PNW Trail




Looking down on Therriault Lake




Larches were in prime color




Views from the Highline Trail did not disappoint.  It stays pretty high around much of the Ten Lakes Basin




High quality alpine singletrack




I rode this section both directions.  Some HAB going uphill but the ride down Wolverine Basin was worth it.




There was a price to pay to ride this as a descent too, which I did by climbing up to the ridge on Poorman Mtn




Some really steep sidehill riding in places.  For the most part the trails were in great shape.




Another segment - the Whitefish Divide Trail.  Called Ralph Thayer Memorial Trail on Trailforks.  Didn't realize this was part of PNW Trail until the end of the ride when I saw this sign




We rode from south at the fire lookout heading north.  Great views up top




The trail follows the west side of the ridge for a while.




Then you spend a bunch of time in forest with a number of steep climbs and descents.  




We dropped down Swede Creek in the middle rather than continue on.  I planned to go back and ride the remaining section the next day but was foiled by rain.  Whitefish Divide continues north of what is shown on TF but runs through burn areas and is pretty much non-existent from what I'm told.  





All of these trails are in heavy grizz country so make sure you have bear spray if you go.  Lots of recent bear sign was seen on all rides.  

Glad I was able to explore some bits and pieces of this trail!

[evdog]

duplicate post deleted

[chrisx]

evdog,
I curious if you need a bear can or a rope to hang your food up there?    Surely you had some bear spray?  I'm headed for for Glacier NP soon.  I might find myself those trails for a week or so next month.  If you know something about grizzlies in the area or regulations for bear cans and bear spry  could you post it up?

[evdog]

I was car camping and doing day rides so I didn't need to worry about bear cans or hanging food at night.  If you were bikepacking or backpacking I would do one of those for sure.  Look up the UrSack, that would work well for bikepacking.  It's soft sided and packable. In Glacier NP camping is in car campgrounds or designated hike in sites only, and they either have bear boxes or poles to hang food from.  I don't know about specific regulations - those likely depend on where you are.

[chrisx]

Not so far from the east end.

Yep you need bear spray, and 25 feet of rope to hang your food.


The west end looks like this,

Bear cans required at the beach.

[chrisx]

Cedar Creek beach.  It takes a lot of effort to walk there.  From my tent I watched eagles play on the beach early in the morning.

[samh]

Great capture!