PNC Days 15-17 – Puget Sound

These three days had us walking through the Puget Sound. It was not very remote (which made camping challenging) and included a lot of road walking, but we had beautiful views of the ocean and mountains all around us! We walked through S’Klallam, Suquamish, Chimacum, Nuwhaha, Lummi, Samish, and Coast Salish ancestral lands.

Day 15 – PNT Mile 265.2 – Whidbey Island

We started the day with a lovely beach walk. We also walked through a few nice state parks today. Most of the day was road walking though. It was hot and sunny—not a good day for road walking because the pavement was hot and there was no shade. The good thing about the road walk was a food truck with super tasty burritos and friendly people! We are also hoping the snow is melting in the Cascade Mountains because we’ll be heading up into them in a week or so. We are camped at a state park in a hiker/biker site tonight. This part of the trail is definitely not as remote as the rest. The ocean and mountain views are nice though, and we saw lots of eagles and military planes and boats. -R

Day 16 – PNT Mile 290.6 – Roads

This was an interesting section of the PNT… It took us along a lot of roads and through populated areas. That was a bummer, but there were some fun parts along the way:

1. We found an old mine next to the trail in Deception Pass state park. We were too lazy to get out our headlamps and explore though.
2. From the bridge at Deception Pass we watched the tide rushing out to sea. It looked like a raging river.
3. We ate wonderful Thai food for lunch when the trail took us through the town of Anacortes. It was amazing!
4. We saw many harbor seals floating in Fidalgo Bay. They seemed friendly!
5. We circumnavigated multiple oil refineries on the east side of Anacortes. They stood out as a drastic contrast to the wilderness we explored on the Olympic Peninsula.

It was hard to find camping at the end of the day because the area is so populated, so we ended up pushing on for a total of 28 miles walked, which is more than we’d like to be doing this early in the trip. Let’s hope we don’t get injured. Dinner is peanut butter pasta. Yum!! -T

Day 17 – PNT Mile 308.2 – Goodbye coast

Today we continued walking through the Skagit Valley. We had a lot of road walking again today. At around lunchtime we walked through Edison and split a pizza. A mile later, we walked through Edison again and split a sandwich. Hiker hunger is starting to kick in! The food was super tasty, and we met some super nice people! Towards the end of the day, we headed into the Chuckanut Mountains on a beautiful trail! The Chuckanuts are where we officially said goodbye to the coast for the last time. We are heading inland and towards the Cascade Mountains. We are camped at a nice little lake tonight, and the sun even poked it’s head out for a bit! -R