Fifteen Years Ago I Set Out On The Pacific Northwest Trail

 

At the trailhead, day 1, July 20, 2010

On July 20, 2010, I started out to walk from the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean on the Pacific Northwest Trail, inspired by writer and backpacker Ron Strickland, who'd come up with the idea for the trail and wirtten the first guidebook. Thank you Ron! It was a wonderful, beautiful, exciting walk.

The trail wasn't as developed as it is now, thanks to the work of the Pacific Northwest Trail Association, but I had Ron's guidebook, which I ripped up and sent to resupply points in sections, and a line on a map to follow. There was much off-trail navigation to deal with though - luckily I love this! 

The Belly River, Glacier National Park

That first day I hiked trails in the spectacular Glacier National Park, a tremendous start to the walk. I marvelled at the huge forests and snow-streaked mountains, revelling in the wild glory and vastness.

First camp

Hiking in Glacier National Park is constrained though. Permits are needed and you have to camp at designated backcountry campgrounds. The first camp of the walk was on the Mokowanis Junction Campground. It would be another three days before I left the national park and permits, campgrounds and trail signs (sometimes the trails themselves) would disappear.

The guidebook after the walk

A first on this walk was a smartphone. The iPhone had been launched just three years earlier. I chose an Android phone though, for the sole reason that it had an interchangeable battery so I could carry spares. Good lightweight battery packs were in the future. So was satellite communications. I only had a phone signal in or near towns. I mostly used it for navigation as it had GPS and I'd downloaded maps. I did take some photos which I sent back to The Great Outdoors magazine along with updates typed on the tiny keyboard. 

My cameras were all digital. I'd given up film several years earlier. An advantage of digital is that advances in processing means I can now get better results from the images than I could at the time. I'm glad I shot raw files so I can do this.

Back home I wrote a book about the walk. It's out of print but I expect there are secondhand copies around.