In the late morning, the logging roads ended, and our pavement walk began. We made our plan to end our day at their house. Nathaniel gave Mary a call, and she was quick to offer us camping in her yard on a lake. The comments in the Guthook App indicated there was a lovely trail angel couple near the tiny town of Alger we would be walking through towards the end of the day. We left camp knowing we’d be walking roads all day. Day 41 – 25.9 Miles / +1300 ft elevation gain A lovely sunset and camping in close quarters put a lovely cap on our 32 for 32. As our day came to an end, we got our first glimpse of the Sound and those feels of “damn we’ve walked a long way” started to set in. Ashlyn being the sweetest thing that she is packed me out dehydrated refried beans for dinner, a true trail delicacy. Not necessarily the most exciting miles I’ve ever hiked, but easy gravel road walking is a good second choice. Woohoo! After a handful of slow miles and a creek ford, we ended up on logging roads and began what would become our longest stretch of road walking yet as we began hiking towards and eventually across Puget Sound. We awoke at Pioneer Camp and started the day with birthday blowdowns leaving us with some fresh birthday blood. Map courtesy of PNT.org Day 40 – 32 Miles / +6800 ft elevation gainįor my 32nd birthday, my friends agreed to hike 32 miles by my side. Read our experience of “urban hiking” on the PNT in Section 8 around Puget Sound. This impacts visitors' experience negatively and has the potential to create user group conflicts and/or camping impacts and resource damage along the trail or camps.We’re out on a thruhike of the ~1200 mile Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) westbound as part of a group of six lean, tan superheroes. When PNT hikers camp without a Park permit or at camps that they are not permitted for, they impact other visitors who do have permits by over-filling camps and forcing groups to share camps when they were expecting a higher degree of solitude. Although the PNT corridor is among the busiest in the park, the permit system helps distribute people throughout the corridor, to designated sites that are set off the main trail and away from each other, so that the experience for all hikers is one of solitude, with minimal impact to the corridor's wilderness resources. Camping is only allowed at designated sites ( no dispersed camping), and permits are limited to the number of sites and site capacity of each backcountry camp. Our permit system is designed to disperse visitors along the trail corridors in order to meet our management goal of protecting wilderness character in the 94% of the National Park Complex that is designated wilderness. North Cascades National Park Service Complex is one of the premier 'wilderness parks' in the lower-48 states, created in 1968 in the aftermath of the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. NOTE: Obtaining a permit via phone is an option for thru-hikers only because they do not have the option to drive to a permit station. Eastbound thru-hikers who are not re-supplying in Sedro-Woolley can obtain a permit at the Glacier Public Service Center or by calling the National Park Wilderness Information Center (360.854.7245).Eastbound thru-hikers re-supplying in Sedro-Woolley, WA, can obtain a permit at the Park and Forest Information Center in Sedro-Woolley, a few blocks form the Sedro-Woolley post office.Westbound thru-hikers re-supplying at Ross Lake Resort can call the same number to obtain a permit for areas west of Ross Lake.Westbound thru-hikers re-supplying in Oroville, WA, can call the National Park Wilderness Information Center in Marblemount (360.854.7245) to obtain a permit for entering the National Park from the Pasayten Wilderness.Westbound section hikers should get their permit from the Wilderness Information Center at the Marblemount Ranger Station or the Methow Valley Ranger Station of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Winthrop, WA.

For eastbound section hikers, the most likely permit station is the Glacier Public Service Center. Section hikers should obtain a permit from the permit station closest to the start of their section hike.

Pacific northwest trail