This really sucks

“Hikers who want to conquer the fabled Pacific Crest Trail in the next few years may come up short in North Central Washington.

A flood-ravaged 39-mile section of the hiker superhighway that runs from Mexico to Canada will be rerouted along steep, rocky and eroded trails northwest of Lake Wenatchee starting this summer.

The U.S. Forest Service is recommending that only highly skilled hikers use the 50-mile detour, which may be impassible if rivers are running too high. The route along five trails and a dirt U.S. Forest Service road in the Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee Ranger Districts is considered too difficult for horses.

"It's not an easy bypass," said Roger Ross, a recreation specialist for the Lake Wenatchee and Leavenworth Ranger Districts. "People might do well to organize a pick-up (at Stevens Pass) and be hauled around it."

About 300 people a year hike the entire 2,650-mile-long trail, most of them starting at the Mexican border in the spring and ending at the Canadian border in the fall. Thousands more hike sections of the trail each year, according to the Pacific Crest Trail Association.

The damaged section of the trail, where it loops around Glacier Peak in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, is expected to be impassible for three to five years because of flooding last October that destroyed seven bridges and huge sections of the trail, said Dawn Erickson, a trails specialist for the Darrington Ranger District. The damage is estimated at $1.4 million.

"We're expecting to find even more damage when we go out and do recon this summer," she said. "It could be seven to 10 years before we get the whole system back in place."

Erickson said bridge replacements and flooding have stopped hikers on the trail from time to time, but never for very long. She said that, as far she knows, this will be the longest the trail in Washington will be unusable.

Meantime, hikers will be sent on a detour along the Indian Creek, White River, Boulder Creek, Little Giant and Buck Creek trails, and about a four-mile section of the Chiwawa River Road.

The worst section of the route is in the Napeequa Valley, where the river can be "treacherous" to cross and the trail up to Little Giant Pass has not been maintained by the Forest Service for 25 to 30 years, Ross said.



This is my "backyard". Many of my favorite places are up there. I guess I'll just have to look forward to how sweet it will be when it is eventually opened back up.”

“Slugman, you're right, it bites now but it will be so much better when it re-opens.”

“Wow.”