Today began at water and ended at water. Sherpa and I woke next to the sun rising over the pond we camped beside and packed our things. We started the day with a steep climb and as we looked over our left shoulders we could see a power plant on the edge of the Columbia river. Sherpa and I were wondering if it was a power plant when we approached our campsite after leaving Stevenson the day before, but could only see the lights from it, as we got to camp at dusk.
On the way up, at some point I got ahead of Sherpa and I found myself about 20 yards from a herd of elk that were grazing in the valley and opposite slope of where I was. I must have gotten ahead a bit because I stood there filming for a while and hoping that Sherpa would join me so she could see them too. Unfortunately I tried to get a closer look and started to move in the direction of the elk and for every one step that I toward the elk, they took twenty steps away. Eventually the heard dispersed and were out of sight so begrudgingly I began walking again. I was really hoping to show them to Sherpa but, as always, breathtaking moments are fleeting. At some point along the way, Sherpa and I met up at a trail junction and continued to finish our climb.
Soon after we reached the apex of our ascent, we crossed a barren stretch of logged land with a forest service road running down the middle of it. Off in the distance we could see the snow-covered Mt. Saint Helen’s or Louwala-Clough.
I was really impressed and excited by how green Washington is and we spent much of our day crossing beautiful streams and bridges and most of the trail felt kind to our feet. We had lunch at Snag creek and then continued on hoping to camp at Wind River. We crossed some more streams and bridges including Trout Creek.
The camping at Wind River seemed hot and muggy so we decided to continue to Panther Creek. Also there was a possibility of trail magic because it was next to a campground. Furthermore, I was excited because I figured there would be a privy.
As we approached Panther Creek we were hiking on a flat section and we happened upon Hollywood, another PCT hiker. He rejoined the trail at kind of an awkward moment because he was stopped on the trail and just about to get on as we were passing. He looked like he was going to be a fast hiker so Sherpa let him go ahead of us.
We talked with him for a while and it was soon apparent that he hikes at a much more leisurely pace than the two of us do. Occasionally Sherpa and I exchanged glances and it was starting to get comical. I entertain myself when she gets in these predicaments because instead of saying something she often attempts to communicate telepathically that we need to get by.
Eventually though she did speak up and we were on our way again, though we only had a short distance to go and before long we arrived at the trail junction to the southern part of the campground. I split off from Sherpa to see if I could find a trash can to ditch my trash and use the privy. I found myself entering a really trashy camping situation and they told me there wasn’t a privy.
I was disappointed but wanted to get away from the campsite in complete disarray. It looked really run down and the campers staying there left camping gear, food, and trash all over their site.
I met Sherpa at the trail and we continued on to the site just before Panther Creek just a short distance away. We expected to find lots of available camping but discovered that we had entered a bubble of sorts and all the obvious sites were occupied.
We continued on about 100 yards until we arrived at the creek itself and a nice bridge. There was about 3 or 4 hikers there sitting and smoking and I asked if they planned on staying there, to which they replied that they were heading on a short distance. I quickly claimed the flattest spot only a few yards from the bridge and at a trail junction. There were lots of people around coming and going but I knew they would eventually clear out and we could be in peace and it would be a nice spot.
At some point we saw Yote and 2.Toe slip by us and we greeted them. They went on to find camping down the junction trail, where I discovered earlier that there was some really nice primitive, pay camping only a few hundred yards away.
Sherpa began setting up the tent and I went down to the stream to collect water. There I found a very shocking site. A woman was passed out leaning against a drunk man on the side of the stream and the man was attempting to lift her. She was nearly unresponsive and he kept trying to pick her up. I asked if they needed help and I was really at a loss as to what to do. The two of them were really drunk and I had no way of telling if the woman was safe.
The man said they were fine and that she just had too much to drink. I considered asking Sherpa to push the SOS button on her GPS unit. In retrospect I probably should have done so but I didn’t want to raise an alarm unless there was one. The situation took me off guard and I think it will take research for me to know what the right thing to do in this predicament would be. That being said, I kept my eye on them and there were lots of other day hikers who seemed less than concerned observing the situation. So at least my complacence was not singular.
Sherpa and I talked about what we should do and at some point it became obvious that both the man and the woman wanted to get back to their tent but the woman could not walk because of how drunk she was. The man kept picking her up and dropping her and I could see that soon she was going to be injured. Sherpa and I walked over and nearly demanded that we help get her away from the water’s edge and back to her tent.
With Sherpa watching our path, I lifted the woman up and the man and I started to walk her back to the tent. The tent was about 40 yards from the water’s edge and soon I found myself supporting both the woman and the man as we walked to the tent. We set her down as gently as we could and then I tried to make it as clear as possible to the woman and the man, that if they should need help or anything to come get me or call out.
Sherpa and I returned to the tent stunned and talked about what we had done. Had we just helped this man abduct this woman? I very much doubt that she was in real danger except from being dropped all over the place by a drunk fool, but if I ever encounter this type of situation, I will get help from professionals if they are available. It was scary.
Our episode was over, and so was our day. We were glad to avoid tragedy and serious drama. Sherpa and I got into our tents and were soon fast asleep like little hiker babies.
Your both so kind…
love u big