As most people know from the news, this has been a particularly devastating wildfire season in the West. I had been mostly keeping one step out in front of the fires since Northern California [and no, for the record, I was not the one starting those fires]. However, I couldn’t continue outrunning the wildfire smoke in Southern Washington. Myself, Money, Fire, Tapeworm, Boots, Packman and Sidewinder were all eventually forced off the trail for a brief period at mile 2,198 due to intense smoke.

For me, the issues with wildfires [and smoke] began near Lake Tahoe. There had been several thunderstorms that started fires in Western California while I was hiking past Lake Tahoe. I had read articles prior to starting the trail as to how to stay safe in the backcountry when you encounter wildfires. So I felt prepared in that sense. But when I woke up on Day 56 of the journey, there was a faint smell of smoke hanging in the air. After hiking for a couple of hours, I found myself in a moderate haze of smoke with the uncomfortable feeling that I might be walking into a wildfire.

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So at the top of Dicks Pass, I was able to get a bit of cell reception and called my Mom so that she could get on the internet and take a look at the fireweatheravelanche.org website and give me an idea if I was walking towards a newly erupted fire. It turned out the smoke I was encountering was being blown over from the Bay Area fires which were west of the trail.

This became the trend for the remainder of my time in Northern California. Depending on the wind patterns, I would either be in perfectly clear air, or at times, walking through a haze of wildfire smoke blown in from the west.

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There were several times where the trail snaked through the devastated landscapes from previous wildfires; a visible premonition of what was happening to the landscapes currently burning.

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The key to safely hiking through these previous burn areas is to…not wander away from the trail! In these sections, the trail is rimmed with the eerie, standing skeletons of once-vibrant trees. These “snags” as they are called can be one wind gust away from toppling over. Most of these burn sections were no longer than five to six miles so I would blast through the areas as quickly as possible to minimize my risk to falling snags.

I also found that in these areas I often encountered downed trees across the trail which forced a lot of acrobatic maneuvers to get around them.

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Most of the wildfires prior to Northern Oregon were well west of the trail and the main hazard had been smoke. But as I approached the Mount Jefferson/Jefferson Park section, the trail was more directly threatened by the Lionshead Fire.

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As I approached Mt. Jefferson from the south, it was plain to see there was a very active fire nearby. An Erickson Aero Tanker MD87 fire bomber had even flown over my location a few times in the morning as it set up for fire bombing runs so I knew there was active firefighting taking place. I had some cell service here and so I was able to check the current fire maps and saw that the Lionshead Fire was still northeast of the PCT, and I continued on.

Near the base of Mt. Jefferson, I passed some southbound hikers who told me that they had seen flames in the distance the previous night. I also heard several PCT hikers had gotten off the trail here, but that another two had continued north just a few hours before. I didn’t have any cell service in this location so I started texting my girlfriend Simone on my Garmin inReach to try and get the latest info. She later told me it was a bit disconcerting when I texted her about wildfire smoke and was wondering if there were any trail closures ahead of me. Whoops! I had tried to be as nonchalant as I could with those texts; I was walking the tightrope of trying to find out this info, and not excessively worrying her.

Simone did some great internet sleuthing for me and we determined the Lionshead Fire was still in fact east of the trail and there were no current trail closures; so I continued north. I wasted no time however and blasted through the Jefferson Park section. I could plainly see a large column of smoke coming up from the fire but luckily, the prevailing winds were blowing away from the PCT and so the fire was not a factor to me in this area. I estimated at the time, the fire was between three and five miles from the PCT.

Just a day after I got through the area, the Forest Service closed a 40 mile section of the PCT threatened by the fire. Unfortunately, the winds both picked up and shifted, and hit 50-60 mph in what was called a “historic wind event” beginning on Labor Day. The Lionshead Fire then turned back towards the PCT and Jefferson Park area.

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I was at Timberline Lodge at the base of Mt. Hood when the wind event began and it was so extreme, PGE had to cut electrical power to the area in an effort to forestall possible power line-sparked wildfires. The Lodge transitioned to backup generator power, but within a day, those generators began to fail and all of us staying there were kicked out as the Lodge could no longer safely operate. Additionally, the Mt. Hood National Forest had just been closed to hiking and so I was forced to skip the final 50 miles of the PCT in Oregon and restart the trail at Cascade Locks. The next day I crossed Bridge of the Gods and began the Washington State portion of the adventure. This was the first time I had to skip a section of the PCT, and it wouldn’t be the last.

As mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, I was finally forced off trail by intense smoke near Trout Lake, Washington. The wind patterns shifted dramatically one night and it was clear to me in the morning why I had been having dreams of being next to a campfire. We were engulfed in a “fog” of wildfire smoke which was burning our lungs.

The visibility was about a quarter of a mile, and after about 16 miles hiking through this, we got picked up by some trail angels at Carson Guler Road and taken to the small town of Trout Lake, Washington.

After spending a zero day there, we got a ride from Money’s friend Christie who was an Angel and drove up from Portland to then take us from Trout Lake to White Pass. We ended up skipping 90 miles of the trail due to the terrible smoke and that meant we missed the famous Goat Rocks section of the PCT. I hope to be able to come back someday and accomplish that 90 mile section in Washington (as well as the 50 mile section in Oregon). We continue to push north towards Canada. Now we’re racing the weather…Winter is coming!

Trail Facts:

• Trail miles walked – 1,604
• Current PCT mileage marker – 2,295
• Additional PCT Thru Hikers I’ve met – Tapeworm, Trooper, Sidewinder, Packman, Flow, Boots, Pappy Smear, Aquamira Snot Rocket, Commander Sheppard, Tommy So Happy
• Current Audiobooks – Soul Full of Coal Dust by Chris Hamby, The Space Barons by Christian Davenport
• Current Podcasts – No Compromise, Cautionary Tales, Backpacker Radio, How Leaders Lead, 99% Invisible, The Daily
• Additional wildlife seen – Gray Jay, Sooty Grouse, Red Tail Hawk