Pacific Crest Trail – Northern Washington (Secs J, L)

July 2-13, 2025

My original plan was to hike the three northern sections of the Washington PCT northbound in consecutive order.  The three sections are Section J that goes from Snoqualmie Pass (I-90) to Stevens Pass (Hwy 2) and covers a little over 70 miles; Section K that goes from Stevens Pass (Hwy 2) to Rainy Pass (Hwy 20) and covers approximately 126 miles; and Section L that goes from Rainy Pass to the Canadian border and then back to Hart’s Pass and covers approximately 90 miles. 

As a result of other commitments, I had a short window of just over three weeks in early July to complete these sections covering some 280 miles. I knew the timing would be tight because I needed to wait for the snow to melt to an extent that I could safely find and follow the trail.  Also, since completing the southern half of Washington the year before, I had reconnected with Chris, a long time friend from college, who wanted to join me on part of the trip. He lives in Montana and would be driving over to meet me. Because of the many variables, we decided that Chris would join me on the first leg of my trip. As it turns out, there are two places in section J that are often some of the last to become snow free. We were lucky in that the snow pack was below average this winter, and we anxiously checked trail reports and satellite images to get an idea of the trail condition. When it became clear that a section close to Snoqualmie Pass was remaining a bit sketchy with snow coverage, we decided to flip the direction of our hike and start at Steven’s pass and hike south. I’d then have Chris drop me back at Steven’s pass on his way back to Montana once we finished. 

That plan also ended up being adjusted once we started hiking and I continued  to gather intelligence on the trail conditions on the northern sections. I quickly learned that the section K, the middle of the tree sections has the reputation of being the most difficult section in Washington.  It is on the long side and it pretty remote as it travels through the Glacier Peak Wilderness area. As a result of it’s remoteness, there isn’t much trail maintenance and there were reports of numerous tree blowdowns blocking the trail and extended sections that had brush overgrowth. In addition, there were several sections that remained snow covered in early July.  Based on this information, I decided to skip section K this year and save it for 2026. Thus, the new and final plan was that Chris would drop me off at Rainy Pass on his way back to Montana and that Angie would meet me in Mazama after I hitched a ride down from Hart’s Pass. 

The following two entries describe Section J southbound that I completed with Chris from July 2 to July 7 and Section L northbound that I completed sole from July8 to July 13.