Pasayten Wilderness

Part 4 | Cape to Key Journals

I am attempting to cross the country from one corner to the other, totally on my own power. Currently, I am walking from Cape Alava, Washington to the Jefferson River, where I will continue in a canoe to the Gulf and ride a bicycle all the way to Key West, Florida.

I have been out here for five weeks.

These are my private thoughts and observations along the way. You can support my journey by becoming a paid subscriber.

Church Hot Dogs - June 29

There’s not a Catholic Church for miles and miles. There was however, a community church and somebody waved me in as I was walking down the street of Marblemount this morning. He said coffee, church and hotdog… I was sold.

The preacher talked about how we have to make a choice every day to live for ourselves, or for the Holy Spirit. Because what we do is an example to other people. That gave me something to think about and something on which to build my motivation for the week.

Because of this box fiasco, I have to stretch three days of food into four. Last night I did that by getting dinner at the gas station. This morning though, the hotdog and soda after church were my scavenged food. They let me take a shower and I got back on the road probably smelling like a goat within the hour.

I got off of the road to walk parallel paths as much as I could. I wanted to be as far away from the travel lanes as possible. The powerline road I was using to parallel Highway 20 ended at the top of the hill and I bush whacked to the next section where it continued.

That was ROUGH.

I carried along on that road for a few miles, and when it ended, I slid down the side of the mountain to the highway instead of trying to find another powerline road.

I actually made it a decent distance considering that I started after lunch. 15 miles and some change, even less than that to go before I get to Ross Lake. I’m really hoping I’m not disappointed. That I could get my box and scoot out of there.

That Was Close - June 30

I selected this route because it avoided Highway 20. I have been too attached to that road these last couple days. My ankles were begging me to stop walking in the ditch and on the very edge of the road so that I don’t get clipped by somebody’s rental RV.

I realized, maybe too late, that the alternate I took was not exactly open to the public. It was a very organized and efficiently laid out area, where all of the signs were printed in the same blue and white. Houses were abandoned and built in the architecture style of government-issued sadness.

It was the Seattle Power and Light company. I passed by their massive equipment, transformers, and transmission towers. I didn’t realize I would be going practically straight up on a decommissioned incline railroad track until I was at the bottom of it. I was just following a line on a map.

When I walked into the area below the incline, I heard two trucks leaving the power facility and coming down my road. Maybe they didn’t care what I was doing, but I didn’t want to get turned around. I put my back against a tree so they would pass without seeing me.