Pacific Crest Trail Section J (Snoqualmie to Stevens Pass) experience and/or trekking food?

Cafe Society
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So, middle kidlet wants to learn how to backpack. So, as soon as it stops raining, I’m working out a bunch of overnighters or two night trips in the Seattle area. It’s always good to have a goal and it dawned on me that we are only 45 minutes away from where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses I - 90.

It’s about 70 miles from Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie Pass with about 15,000 feet in vertical elevation change. I’ll take a week off work, which gives really 9 days to do it. I figure 10-12 miles per day isn’t too tough for some teenagers and an overweight dad that hasn’t done serious backpacking for 30 years. I did a ton of trekking in my 20’s and into my 30’s, including multiple solo trips in Tibet and Japan. I still have a 45 liter karrimor backpack that is a veteran of Tibet, China and Japan.

I will be picking up new gear as I can’t find my North Face backpack with all the good stuff in it.

If anyone’s done this section of the PCT, I’d love to hear about your experience and get some feedback.

Also, starting to pull together a meal list. It needs to be vegetarian. I’m not big on the freeze dried meal pouches. Would much rather make a stew or a curry with fast cooking lentils.

Boot and backpack recommendations are welcome. I’ve got an old katadyn water purifier that works. Tent and sleeping bags are fine(north face). How about stoves? Better to have a seperate fuel source or canisters (one week is probably the max for the gear I need).

Not sure if it will just be two of us, and could be up to 10

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Nothing in cans. Cans are heavy. Check carefully for restrictions on fire on your route (not likely an issue in the northwest where you are but check anyway). Multiple compasses (you’d think a freaking magnet would be a reliable tool but they’re surprisingly glitchy). Candles are lightweight formidable fire starters in case of rain. Oil your boots with neatsfoot or equiv. If you’re going veg, fast-cook rice to accompany lentils, peas, other quick legumes. Dried fruit aka fruit jerky = good. Nut butters good, lots of protein lightweight, no spoil. Three miles per hour est but less when lots of vertical, two a better estimate, even 1.5 when climbing.

Jealous. Never done that part of PacTrail!

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I never had a problem hiking in Gore-Tex boots and woolen (or “smart” wool or whatever) socks.

As for your meals, I suppose you need to figure out how long it takes to cook those instant lentils, or instant beans+rice, etc. To make up a number, the water not instantly boiling and so on, let’s say 15 minutes, twice per day, so you will be blasting your stove for 30 minutes per day. Even one of the smaller liquified gas (isobutane/propane) canisters will last for a couple of hours, and it should not be a problem carrying two or three spares to last you a week (also you don’t absolutely need the smallest size). If it’s 10 people, they can each carry proportionally more fuel. No need for a separate fuel supply like a jerrycan full of diesel. I don’t find the freeze-dried pouches that bad for a few days, actually, but there are a lot of recipes if you search for “gourmet camping” (example)

I don’t know about all the multiple compasses + GPS, but for sure get some trail maps and/or a topographic map so you know where you are going.

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Thanks for the suggestions so far. first thing I did was buy a topographic map for the washington portion.

I always bring extra compases, and know how to tell direction based on time.

My manager suggested the Garmin inreach device just in case. I’ll probably do that just for a little insurance since I’m not the 20 year old trekker I used to be and I’ll have teenagers under my responsibility :wink:

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Check on whiteblaze.net, primarally it’s for the AT, but does have a PCT forum and lots of experienced backpackers, including many who have hiked that section. And plenty of gear and food advice.

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10-12mi/day seems a bit ambitious to me. Can you do some day hikes over similar terrain to judge baseline?

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I was going to say…day hikes and overnighters won’t give you a good handle on your stamina for a week-long trip at altitude. Do you really want to spend a week full of non-flat walking?

As for food, check out what’s new at Packit Gourmet. I’ve found most of their stuff to be pretty decent. The best bet, of course, is to hit your local megamart and buy up plenty of enveloped Indian food. Tasty Bite makes a wide range of pretty freaking good Indian dishes. Or get Ashoka on Amazon. The pouches are Ready-To-Eat and only have to be heated, not cooked which saves fuel.

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China Guy, glad to see you trying out the next great adventure!

A couple of suggestions for shorter warm-up backpacks to get your feet:

  1. Stewart Lake and 8-mile lake in the Enchantments. Both are 3 mile hikes in- and require permits. But neither is as popular (nor as difficult!) as the Enchantments Core or Snow Lake. The PCT actually really isn’t far away. You can get permits online or walk-up. Everyone else in line will be going for Core!
  2. Goat Rocks wilderness (SnowGrass flats). No permit, or at least it didn’t used to, but this is a spectacular place (and nearly every PCTers favorite part of the whole trail). It is crowded, but for a reason
  3. Snow Lake/ Gem Lake - once again near teh PCT, but a simpler out and back.
    For all of them I would recommend 2 nights- hike in, camp, day hike and enjoy the wilderness and return to y7our tent, and then hike back out.

If you want to really get into backpacking, go to Canadian National and Provincial Parks (Banff, Yoho, Jasper, Mt. Robson, etc.). They have excellent reservation system. As well as well-contructed tent sites, with picnic tables, bear and animal food storage protection, and nearby water.

10-12 miles are long days for most new backpackers. Look at PCT journals, they start with ultralight packs and still only do 8-10 miles per day for teh first several hundred miles. If newbies are hiking 10-12 miles (repeatedly) is not going to be a fun trip. Take it easy and enjoy (at least until you have worked out your gear). I have probably done 50 backpacking trips- and probably several hundred more days camping, but I have only ever done >7 nights once. Between work and just the logistics, it is difficult, but I find a good 4-5 day trip is usually perfect for accomplishment and remoteness without requiring too much food, too much water, and too many clothes (to prep for all weather).

I have done the J Section, and it’s great and spectacular. But I think an out and back on it would be absolutely fine (off i90 direction would be more people, but also a little more open views) so rather than having to crush it to go the whole length do what you can for 2 days and still be happy and then decide whether to just do an out and back vs. making a sprint for it.

Other thoughts:
“Make” your own food - we do angel hair pasta and (self) dehydrated tomato sauce with lots of parmesean, dehydrated rice+brocolli and chicken from a pouch, chicken marbella, Cheese and Cheezits for some go to dinners. Oatmeal with milk powder + dried fruit for breakfasts. Poptarts, or peanut butter and flour tortillas for lunch (moose goo on tortillas is my teen daughter’s food for breakfast and lunch for up to 5 days in a row). Snickers, nuts, and dried fruit mixed in and you have 4 days of food. Dehydrated pineapple carrot coleslaw is a recent lunch addition. Carrots and apples last fresh until day 3 (but are heavy with water). We take one pot to boil water (only), a cup, a bowl, and a spoon for each person. The pouches are just not worth it. Buy the cheapest dehydrator and you will make your money back in no time. Cook the dinner at home and dehydrate it (dehydrated rice is 20% of the time and effort as minute rice for instance). Cleverhiker and backpackerchef have some simple ideas to get started.

Water treatment- just get the Sawyer squeeze/gravity filter or Katahdyn tabs. Mechanical pumps are just a PITA.
Don’t gear up- use what you have
Stoves- everyone likes their own setup. But get one that fits in your pot for each carrying. MSR Whisperlight (and precursors) has been my standard for 30 years. I would probably move to a JetBoil given our only boiling water. (Actually, I would personally vote no stove and no cooking, but my partner wants hot tea with breakfast and dinner so thus “just boiling water” is teh middle ground.)

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To me a hot meal is enough of a morale boost to be worth carrying a stove – I’m a JetBoil convert – the MiniMo can theoretically simmer. (the stove and a 100g fuel can will fit in the pot)
Hot chocolate is a nice treat by itself or with oatmeal.
Uncle Bens microwave rice is on the heavy side but just needs warming up.
Instant mashed potatoes (you can pre-ad some flavorings)
I also think 10 miles is ambitious.
If fish is OK, the various flavored tuna pouches on tortillas make a decent lunch.

Brian

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The movie Wild is very good about hiking the PCT and the book is pretty good too.

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Keep the suggestions coming. REI has done a limited re-opening this week, so I’ll be able to get boots and a backpack. I’ve got existing equipment that’s more than fine for an overnighter or three. Since the forecast is no rain on Fri and Sat, we’re going to do an overnighter to Pratt Lake basin (within spitting distance of the PCT), which is about 7 miles one way on Friday. Will be doing several one and two night trips for the next two months to warm up.

Definately want to do a lot of camp cooking. One of the most enjoyable parts to me is settling down at camp, figuring out what to cook based on what you brought, how to juggle the sequencing, and then eating a cooked meal. I’m not so big on the freeze dried pouches but will check them out

Elevation isn’t such a concern. Almost the entire section is 4000-6000 feet with the high point barely breaking 6,000ft, so while there is plenty of vertical ups and downs, the hike isn’t in really thin air. So, hiking ~6 hours per day, even at 1.5 miles per hour average, is 9 miles per day. I think that’s not crazy but will do some test runs to verify. Plus, this is one way to guarantee to not think about work nor be reachable.

Disheaval - those are all good ideas. I’m sure the drive to the Enchantments is worth it, and I’ll be applying for permits next year. In the short run, we’ve got plenty of test hikes to do between Bellevue and Snoqualmie. My oven does dehyration, so will get the kid to check out pre-making meals. After having lived here for 10 years, I do want to take advantage and explore the Olympics and Cascades. I took the kids to Banff for a week of campground camping 3 summers ago, and the area is awesome.

Man, there is a lot of good equipment out there these days at less than half the weight I’m used to. I’m looking at the JetBoil. Since this is just a week and not an extended trek, the JetBoil seems “preferrable” to a multi fuel stove and fuel bottles. Not that I *need *them now, but the ZPacks Duplex or a Tarptent StratoSpire Li tents sure look sweet.

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10-12 miles a day is tough, that’s a full day unless you’re a young kid or in great backpacking form. We recently did 8 nights along the Hiker’s Haute Route in Switzerland with hut packs (no camping gear). Those days were 12-15 miles and we were pretty darn tired at the end of the day, and we hike a lot. Add the full packs and the need to cook your own meals and you might want simple one pot meals at the end of the day. Lots of long distance hikers use stoves like the JetBoil for quick and simple meals with little clean up or prep work.

Otherwise, enjoy! That area is beautiful.

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Trail tested a brand new Osprey Atmos 65L with a tent and sleeping bag pulled out of my “museum”, and a packed weight of 15 pounds on father’s day by going to Lake Annette (7.25 miles, 1400 elevation gain, 4 hours hiking). Osprey really has a great design that fits me well.

Probably do an overnighter this Friday to Pratt Lake and Melakawa Lake. It’s 15 miles or so. That should yield a good checklist of things I stupidly forgot to bring. :rofl:

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Kidlet and I did a 7+ mile day trip today with 2,000 foot elevation gain to Mason Lake. Mason Lake is just inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, which also incompases PCT Section J. Trail tested my new Osprey pack and Solomon boots, and both worked quite well. 4 hours with a 30 minute break for instant noodles.

The hiking book recommendation I have that includes this section J of the PCT, ranges from 5.1 to 11.7 miles per day with an elevation gain of no more than 2,800 feet/day and a total 14,000 foot elevation gain. Pfffft. Piece of cake even pushing 60 in my 20 pound overweight and not the best shape condition. And I say this having done many more longer treks in much more challenging conditions that the 3,000 - 6,000 foot elevation of this section of the PCT.

We have 9 days (and frankly longer if needed) to cover 60 miles and 15,000 foot elevation gain. 5-7 days seems to be a pretty good planning guide.

Telemark, I’m budgeting about 8 hours per day hiking. Frankly, it gets light at 4:00ish AM, and dark after 9:00pm. There isn’t a ton of stuff to do other than hike. 4 hours in the morning, make a good long lunch, 4 hours in the afternoon. Make camp, cook dinner, hit the hay. Rinse lather repeat.

I am planning on at least one decent weekend hike every weekend this summer, and any teen (and/or parent) joining us on the PCT will need to do at least 1 overnighter with us.

Will update as this progresses. Appreciate the feedback thus far!

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Hiked to Molakwa Lake and back today. ~9 miles and 2,500 ft elevation gain. My left foot, ankles and knees all held up fine. 3 hours in and 2.5 hours back. Pretty rocky terrain for a lot of it. Beautiful lake. Man, I really like these alpine lakes.

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As a Seattle expat, I’m really enjoying hearing about these hikes that were once in my ‘home zone’. I’ve got little to add other that don’t immediately discount the freeze dried meal pouches. The variety is better than ever and some of them are really good. I found that even though I like doing some cooking on hiking trips, some days I just don’t feel like messing with it, and having something satisfying that requires minimal prep can really be a nice luxury.

Just honking back to my last camping trip (I was motorcycle camping in this case, but the principle was the same) I recall really digging on the Mountain House breakfasts, and most specifically the blueberry granola. I’m terrible firsthing in the morning so I found that, and the biscuits and gravy (sounds gross, I know, but it hit the spot) to be lifesavers.

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I love the Mt. Baker / Snoqualmie area. I worked in Seattle for a year and a half and spent some memorable days in the area. Check out this Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest page for good links to campground reservations and hiking trails in the area. Hope that helps with trip planning. Have fun!

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Quick update: Took my son for his first overnight to Pratt Lake (also in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area) late Saturday afternoon. 5+ miles and ~2800 vertical feet, 20 pound packs, first time using trekking poles, 4 hours one way. Not my favorite lake (almost no lake access owing to boulder fields) and not a great trail once crossing the ridge. Son had a good time, and tested out his hammock in the wild.

The return took 3.5 hours and didn’t feel bad (I didn’t reach an Advil level of soreness :rofl:). My gut feel is that the hiking poles really helped on the ankles, knees and energy level. It’s one of those things. No one used trekking poles back in the 80’s and 90’s. At best a walking stick. I think they really helped and not just projection on my part.

Also sanity checked Section J with an REI employee who’s around my age. 10-12 miles per day is reasonable. It’s 60 miles if start from the Surprise Creek trailhead. It’s only about 6 miles and 2000 foot elevation gain to the first camping area before Pieper Pass (6000 ft). Day 2 probably the longest section at around 12 miles and 3000 elevation climb.

Tested our gear and the only major thing we forgot was mosquito repellent. Had a nice meal of Chinese hotpot, followed by breakfast of hash browns and eggs over easy. :slight_smile: Also tracked the MSR fuel consumption. Probably need to bring an extra canister depending on how much we want to cook. I’ve also lost a couple of pounds and should drop a couple more over the next 2 weeks. Will watch the weather for if we want to go on the 9th or 16th of August

Appreciate all the suggestions

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Did about 9 miles round trip ( and 2,500 ft elevation gain on the PCT from Snoqualmie Pass. My son didn’t get a good nights sleep, so we didn’t go for Kendall Katwalk, which is 14 miles or so round trip.

It was a really good trail and the elevation gain was not overly steep. In fact, a much better trail with less people than on any of the other alpine likes nearby. I think Gravel Lake will be my go to more difficult overnighter. Mason Lake is the much shorter “rookie” destination to take someone out for their first overnighter.

Met a couple of groups that were just winding up the Stevens Pass to Snoqualmie Pass Section J route that we want to do in 2-3 weeks. They confirmed they hiked 7-8 hours & ~12 miles per day. One kinda nasty stretch of scree for 4 miles. Some snow above 5,500 feet (max elevation on the hike is 6,000 ft).

Again, the hiking poles really help the joints! I don’t need advil. :wink: No doubt that 5-6 days of hiking is going to be painful, but not excruciating.

Also, found a 48 liter Osprey backpack at REI that fits my son well.

We are reasonably geared out. Need to find another 1 pound fuel canister. If not, my Coleman Peak 1 multifuel purchased in Japan in 1991 still works! Christ, it is maybe a 1/4 full of fuel that’s left over from the 1990s, and it fired up.

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Do you know about the mountaineers?

in more normal times, they’re a good resource/reference for hiking, treking, backpacking info and skills.