Day 62: The Cascade Trail Detour

August 10: The morning was gray, overcast and generally miserable, but weather reports actually reported clear and sunny in Concrete. It seemed so completely at odds with what were seeing outside it hardly seemed credible.

 

But! I still had a trail to hike and gray and overcast skies wouldn't stop me. So Amanda and I hopped into the car and drove to Concrete.

I had finished the trail yesterday 6 miles west of Concrete, but I still needed to go into the town to pick up a mail drop that I had sent there before I knew Amanda would be coming out to visit. I couldn't pick it up yesterday because it was Sunday and the post office was closed. And anyhow, I wasn't inclined to carry it for 6 miles before Amanda picked me up. But it meant we needed to swing by in order to retrieve the package.

And, somewhat surprisingly, it actually was clear and sunny in Concrete! The weather reports were accurate!

When we drove west 6 miles on Highway 20 back to Baker Lake Road where I resumed my walk. Amanda drove off to do her antiquing and letterboxing and whatever all she was inclined to do while I started to hike.

It was a relatively quick and uneventful walk that covered a mere 8 miles to the small town of Lyman. The official connector route back to the primary PNT veered off at Hamilton, but the PNTA website reported active logging on that section of the trail and it was closed to hikers, and they recommended a detour that returned me back to the primary PNT through Lyman, so that was what I followed.

 

But I stopped at Lyman since beyond it, I wasn't sure where else Amanda could pick me up easily. Lyman was easy, though, located right off Highway 20.

And being a rail-to-trail, I covered the 8 miles quickly. Flat as a pancake, wide as a train, and clear as the sky! I zoomed through the distance in about 2.5 hours.

Amanda was doing hikes for Hike-a-Thon, so she wound up parking in Lyman and walking up the trail in my direction for about a mile. Although "walking" might be a somewhat generous term. She had severely sprained her ankle earlier in the week and hobbled around with a severe limp.

I found her resting on a trail-side bench and we walked back to the car. I almost lost her, though, when she spotted blackberries on the side of the trail and tried to eat them all. I finally pulled her away, though, and we made it back to the car and drove back into Burlington.

We stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Mi Mexico, then returned back to the hotel where I continued to work on my laptop. Amanda went out to look for some nearby letterboxes to fill the rest of her day.

And that was that! The end of another day of hiking!

Amanda resting her foot after spraining it earlier in the week but walking a mile out on the Cascade Trail anyhow.