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cougbowler · 6 years

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I am now a Trail Angel

On Monday September 17, 2018 I became an official Trail Angel and provided a little bit of magic. The whole experience made it one of the most satisfying days of my life. I have no idea how many years left on this earth I have but they will be spent “giving”. You may be asking yourself what is a “Trail Angel”? I will tell you.

First a little background: Soon after getting into hiking in 2015 I began reading quite a few books of real life accounts of hiking adventures. Most of these have been of people who have hiked the entire AT (Appalachian Trail). These people are known as thru-hikers. Thru-Hikers of the AT or even the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) can be out in the wilderness for 4-5 months straight. The AT goes from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. The PCT from the US/Mexico border east of San Diego to Canada north of the Okanagon in Washington State. Both are around 2400 miles. The normal trip for both of these are NOBO (in the North Bound direction) and are from around April to September.

While reading these books I could not imagine walking, quite a bit of them alone, for days at a time without seeing another human and sometimes running out of food or water. The logistics involved are incredible as well. Hikers will mail resupply boxes to various cities along the route so they can pick up more food or other supplies as they go since nobody can carry 4-5 months of food with them. Every book has had something in common. The hiker is in the middle of nowhere and either getting close to a campground or a road crossing (both of these trails cross various roads both dirt, paved and even Freeways) and all of sudden there is a person or a group of people setup and providing hikers with food and drinks when they least expected it. These people are Trail Angels and the amazing food and generosity they provide is the Trail Magic. Sometimes a hiker will just come across some Magic with no Angel in site. This could be in the form of a cooler full of beer, water or gatorade or even some candy bars or other snacks. Some Trail Magic could be a bunch of cold drinks tied up at a stream crossing staying cold in the water. Amazing right?

So how did I become an angel? This summer I have been following along via YouTube of a local Seattle-ite hiker who has been hiking the PCT. It has been awesome to follow along her journey and experience a thru-hike that I will never……….wait….. That I have yet to do. She has passed a few different Trail Angels and received Magic from non-angels. Most thru-hikers leave the trail and head to towns along the way to re-supply or take a “Zero Day”, a day where they hike zero trail miles. Quite a bit of these excursions are hitchhiking from the road-crossing to the town. The random people that give them rides are also Angels, usually unknowingly. I started thinking it would be amazing to give back to the hiking community and provide some Magic of my own. I started looking into how and where I could do this. I found a website about the PCT and saw that it crosses HWY 410 at Chinook Pass near Mt. Rainier and tried to get a few people from a couple Hiking FB groups together to do this but I was not sure when would even be a good time of year to ensure I would see thru-hikers and what would I bring and if it rained would I just be sitting out in the rain…. I needed more planning…. Then I found a FB group for PCT Hikers and even a couple groups for PCT Trail Angels. I joined these groups.

I woke up on September 17th and noticed in the Trail Angel group that a girl had posted the night before asking for help getting from Seattle to Marblemount up near the North Cascades HWY so she could get back on the trail. I posted a reply to see if she still needed a ride and got no reply so I sent her a DM through Messenger. She answered right away that yes she still needed a ride. She said it was her and her friend and they were hoping to go around 11am. I told her I would do it. So there it was my first instance of providing Trail Magic was going to be picking up 2 strangers in Seattle and driving them 2 hours north for free and just because. I was excited. I found out where they were and headed out to fill up my gas tank. She pinged me to say her friend had to go to the pharmacy that did not open until 11 so could I be there at 11:30? I told her if they wanted I would still grab them at 11 then stop by the pharmacy and head north. She said that would be great. So at 11am I got to the Holiday Inn on Dexter near the Seattle Center to pick up 2 hikers. Both of the were probably in their 30’s and the one I had been communicating with was Asia (Ah-see-ah) originally from Poland and her friend was Niko, originally from the Czech Republic but both currently lived in LA. They said they were in the midst of only hiking the PCT through Washington and had been on the trail since August 10 but had taken a break for the past week and explored the Olympic National Forest and Mt. Rainier. We left the hotel and headed to Fred Meyer in Ballard for the pharmacy. While Niko was in Fred Meyer Asia told me they were actually filming a movie and not just hiking the trail. She carried all of the equipment in her pack and Niko had the tent and food. They started out with a drone too but it had issues and never worked so they had to send it off for repairs early during the hike.

We left Ballard for our 2 hour drive to the Marblemount Ranger Station. Along the way I got to ask a lot of questions about the PCT and get my fill on thru-hiking information that I had always wondered about. I asked if they had “trail names” which are nicknames that most thru-hikers either get from other hikers or give themselves usually relevant to something they experience “on trail”. For example someone who is a fast hiker and making good miles everyday may be called “Speedy” or maybe a hiker breaks a hiking pole along the way and they get called “One-Pole”... Anyway they said that they gave each other names and Asia was “dirtball” and Niko was “sweatball”. I did not ask why but seems pretty self-explanatory. The drive was nice and relaxed. We talked about hiking and at times I kept quiet so as not to continue blasting them with questions. Niko spent some time looking at apartments in LA as they were planning on moving in together when they got back but also since they had been in Seattle and on the trail in Washington they were seriously considering moving to Seattle as they had fallen in love with our neck of the woods per se.

The girls were not sure what their plan was once they got to the Marblemount Ranger Station. They just knew they had to check in and get their permits for camping in the National Forest and figure out the best way to get on a trail that would lead them to Stehekin. ***** From what I have heard prior Stehekin is a magical place out near Chelan that can only be reached by a ferry or by hiking***** Their plan was to get to Stehekin in the next couple of days, stay there for a couple days then get on the PCT there and head to Canada. Sounds fun right?

We arrived at Marblemount and pulled up at the Ranger Station. I told them they could leave their packs in my car while they figured out what was next. We went in and Asia started getting the information and their permits. I saw some Bear Canisters in the corner and just had to check them out. I’ve read all about hikers having to carry these in certain places to keep their food safe from bears. This was another really cool first for me. I headed back to the desk to see what the Ranger was telling Asia and NIko. He showed them on a map a couple of places they could camp along the way to Stehekin but first they had to get to the Cascade Pass Trail near the Johannesburg Campground about an hour away. Their plan was to get there and stay the night then start hiking in the morning. Once they realized this was their plan I knew they had no idea how they were going to get to the Campground so I told them I would take them. What’s another hour of driving anyway right? But it was already after 1pm and I think we were all hungry. I asked if they wanted to get some food in Marblemount before heading out and offered to buy them lunch. We went to a cute little place called the Glacier Peak Eatery. After some food we were on our way to the campground. The road was mostly paved but had some portions of dirt and luckily was pretty well maintained without many potholes. We made it there and to their dismay there were tons of vehicles. They were hoping to be somewhat secluded. The actual campsite was about 200 yards from the parking lot so I am not sure how crowded it was but it also looked like quite a few people were heading out so maybe they were mainly day hikers. We got their packs out of the trunk and noticed how it was pretty cold there but I was super jealous I was not partaking in their adventure. They thanked me for the 20th time and I told them it was my pleasure. I gave them each a hug and told them I would be following on IG and looking forward to the movie debut.

I used the restroom and headed back down the windy road. I plugged in my spotify and was engulfed in emotions. Similar to when I start the return trip of one of my hikes and my itch to do a backpacking trip has just got 100 times worse. While Asia and Niko were thankful and were happy to have received a free ride and a free meal it was me that got the most out of it. My heart was full and I can’t explain the feeling of helping someone out with no expectations in return. What I also got out of it was 2 new friends. Yes I may never see them again but we definitely became friends and as I drove away I felt happy but also a sadness as I truly was starting to miss them and I sooo wanted to be out at the campground getting setup for the night and preparing for the next day hike. Someday… Someday. But until then I will continue to seek and provide Magic to those that can use it.

#trailangel

#trailmagic

#pcthikers

#thruhiking

#someday

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