Solo hiker traverses the Pacific Northwest national trail
By Marcy Stamper
Long-distance hiking expeditions have been attracting considerable attention lately, taking a notable detour from the mountains to Hollywood with the release in December of Wild, the movie version of Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling memoir about her trek on the Pacific Crest Trail.
While hiking hundreds or thousands of miles, particularly all alone, is no small feat — between the weather, the physical exertion and the mental and emotional discipline — hiking little-traveled routes adds still more challenges.
Kelley Wiley Lane learned that firsthand this summer when she hiked the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, which meanders for 1,200 miles from the Continental Divide in Montana to the Pacific Ocean. The route crests Slate Peak in the Pasayten Wilderness above Mazama.
Wiley Lane didn’t necessarily plan to visit Winthrop, but her trip — shaped by snow and then by fire — brought her down from the mountains twice in the course of her 95-day trek.
While most hikers go from east to west, Wiley Lane started July 3 on the Pacific Coast because there was still too much snow at Glacier National Park. She hiked down the Washington coast, through Olympic National Park, and walked along the perimeter of the Shell oil refinery en route to the Pasayten Wilderness. She arrived in the Pasayten in mid-July, just as the Carlton Complex Fire was raging.
From high in the mountains, Wiley Lane saw a blanket of smoke but had no access to information until she found a trail-closure sign near Slate Peak. She got a ride to Winthrop, where she planned her next steps — literally. With the uncertainty posed by the fire, Wiley Lane decided to head to the eastern end of the trail in Montana and start hiking back the other way. She finished her hike at Slate Peak on Oct. 4.
Newest scenic trail
The Northwest Scenic Trail is the newest of the country’s 11 National Scenic Trails, and conditions and route-finding on parts of the trail reflect its embryonic status. Wiley Lane had to rely on her compass for many sections described on the map merely as “cross-country,” where she climbed over downed trees and through thick vegetation as she looked for landmarks to plot a route.
“The Pacific Northwest Trail is not, at this time, the easiest trail to hike. There are numerous places where there is not any signage and some sections have not been maintained in a long time,” admitted Jon Knechtel, director of trail operations for the Pacific Northwest Trail Association.
Since the mid-1970s when it was first pieced together from hiking trails, cow paths and old roads, some 350 people have hiked the Pacific Northwest Trail, most in the past six years, since its designation as a National Scenic Trail. Wiley Lane was one of six women to complete the trek this year, two of whom walked the route alone. The trail attracted 30 through-hikers this year.
By contrast — even without the Hollywood panache — between 700 and 900 people embark on a through-hike on the Pacific Crest Trail annually, although fewer than half complete the 2,650-mile journey. In the past several decades, 3,241 have completed that trail, and 64 of them liked it so much that they have done it more than once.
Aside from length and notoriety, the two routes have other significant differences. While the Pacific Northwest trail traverses three national parks and seven national forests, it also passes industrial sites, miles of active logging roads and even follows some busy highways. “I thought all that variety was really neat,” said Wiley Lane.
Loggers were very curious about her, she said. “A few trucks passed, and I could feel the road vibrate before they got there.”
This was Wiley Lane’s first solo, extended trip. “I wanted the physicality of walking every day, of seeing new places, and the continuity of the through-hiker — how mountains become plains and then mountains again,” she said. Her husband joined her for a few brief stretches, but she walked the vast majority on her own.
Finding the route
While the fire was worrisome, Wiley Lane said the scariest part was having to figure out her own route through difficult terrain where there were no other hikers. “I thought, if I twist my ankle, I’m going to have to crawl out of here,” she said.
The Northwest Scenic Trail winds through enough towns that Wiley Lane was able to buy food en route. Gas station convenience stores offered a surprising wealth of options, she said. She didn’t carry a stove, but subsisted primarily on cheese, salami, energy bars, nut butters and powdered milk. “Pop tarts and Fritos taste really good on a long hiking day,” she said.
“I loved going into towns — the best towns were the smallest towns — where I could do laundry, get food, and see people,” she said. “It’s such a solo trail that I needed to talk to people.” Although most days she saw at least one person, there were sections where she didn’t encounter another person for up to six days.
She loved the Pasayten Wilderness and the wildness of Whidbey Island, where the trail follows a route with no beach. She would nap during the day and time her walk to coincide with low tide.
Now that she’s back home in Seattle, Wiley Lane is sorting through her mail and tending to other responsibilities that come with civilization. She is also planning her next journey on another little-traveled route, although she hopes to have company for the trip. A top contender is an urban trail called the Inman 300, which rambles for 190 miles over 300 public stairwells in Los Angeles. “It’s the curse of having done a hike that’s so unknown,” she said.
