Day 105: PNT

The sky was a dark grey and the morning cool. The perfect weather to start a climb out of camp where we officially left the PCT and will now be on the Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) until I leave Sandman in Oroville, 112 miles away. 

The PNT is one of the youngest and most wild of our national scenic trails, and even Guthooks, the app I use to navigate, treats it as such. On the PCT, the app lists almost every water source; however on the PNT, it listed maybe 1 in 10 today. 

The PNT felt more like an adventure within the first few miles with its overgrown trail and blow downs. We are hiking through one of the more remote sections of the lower 48 states and it’s amazing. 

Most of today felt like more of an obstacle course versus trail. We constantly had to go over, under, around, or all three to avoid tree blow downs strewn across the trail. No kidding, I bet we climbed at least 500 blow downs today. It was a different kind of exhausting.

Besides being more wild, the PNT differs more from the PCT from its use of switch backs. The average grade of elevation changed we experienced on the PCT was around 300 ft/mile, but the trail today had one 650 ft/mile over 4.8 miles and another at 900 ft/mile at .7 miles. Exhausting!

We called it quits absolutely beat around 31 miles after 11+ hours of hiking. The PNT lived up to its reputation of being wild and difficult. 

Miles: 31.2

Total Miles: 2,785