June 25, 2025 Windy Pass to campsite at mile 2647.3 16.9 miles This morning feels nice. Chilly but not frigidly cold. I slept just okay last night; it could have been worse, but my hips and back still hurt. But no matter. I have my hot coffee and breakfast wraps. The stream rising from the …
Continue reading PCT Day 155: Ground Squirrels, Pikas, and Marmots, Oh My!
June 24, 2025 Glacier Pass to Windy Pass 15.1 miles I’m awake long before my alarm again. Either I’m still on east coast time or the light wakes me up or both, but either way I don’t mind much today because I actually slept really well. Of course, there were still the obligatory moments when …
June 23, 2025 Campsite below Cutthroat Pass at NOBO mile 2599.5 to Glacier Pass 15.8 miles It gets light early, just before 5, and I’m awake again. It usually takes me a while to get used to sleeping in my tent and on a sleeping pad again, so I’m not surprised that I was awake …
June 22, 2025 Rainy Pass to campsite below Cutthroat Pass at NOBO mile 2599.5 5.2 miles My heart skips a beat when the sign comes into view. “North Cascades Scenic Highway - Rainy Pass Picnic Area.” The base is stone, emblazoned with a metal Forest Service logo. The mountains behind it are jagged and snow-flanked, …
August 3, 2024 Auberge La Flégère to Les Houches 10.6 miles There’s something nice about doing a circular hike. It’s like completing a ring, making it back to the beginning. I do love a full-circle ending, me. Tie up all those loose ends, make it all connect. Bring us back to where it started. You …
August 1, 2024 Auberge Mont Blanc in Trient to Auberge la Boerne in Tré-le-Champ 8.6 miles I’m impressed with Auberge Mont Blanc. It’s enormous, but they still manage to provide hikers with everything they need. Enough showers with hot water and good water pressure? Check. Friendly employees and a nice bar? Check. A buffet breakfast …
July 31, 2024 Chalet la Grange, Champex-lac to Auberge Mont Blanc, Trient 10 miles Another morning, another half-awake scramble to get moving followed by another delicious breakfast. More of that tangy, thick alpine yogurt that I love! Melissa has provided us with little tureens of it, along with jam, cereal, and of course, freshly baked …
July 30, 2024 Auberge des Glaciers, La Fouly to Chalet la Grange, Champex-Lac 10.5 miles One of the many nice things about this refuge is that breakfast is a buffet that ranges from 6:30-10:00, as opposed to other refuge breakfasts that are at one set time. There’s not a lot of rush as a result, …
July 29, 2024 Rifugio Bonatti to Auberge des Glaciers, La Fouly 12.4 TMB miles 14 miles total with side trail Alarm goes off. Snooze. Goes off again. Snooze. It’s going to be a big hiking day, an a challenging one, and I know that I need to get up, but I’m still so eepy and …
July 28, 2024 Courmayeur to Rifugio Bonatti (then bus back to Courmayeur) 7.6 miles Today is an easy day, and we’re slackpacking, and we’re staying in the same place tonight. So there isn’t much of a rush this morning to get up. The ability to spread out in my own extremely comfortable bed after the …
Sarahmarie Specht-Bird 