The highs and lows of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail

Some call it the best trail experience on Earth.

This is the time of year when hundreds of hikers with the time and the strength begin planning a long trek on the Pacific Crest Trail — a 2,650-mile, four-month-plus journey from the Mexican border, through the mountains (and some deserts) of California, Oregon and Washington, to the Canadian border.

Richard Steward of Mukilteo was 59 and in great shape when he made the journey this past summer. “Proton,” his trail name, walked an average of 24 miles a day, “thru-hiking” the trail from May 3 to Sept. 13.

Ryan “Stormchaser” Morrison, 38, who works for the city of Marysville, started his journey on May 6.

They are two of more than 4,200 backpackers — who each receive trail names along the way — to thru-hike the PCT from end to end in a single trip.

Morrison plans to talk about his PCT hike for the city’s new Outdoor Adventure Speaker Series at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24 at the Marysville Opera House.

Morrison, a public works project engineer for the city, has been an outdoor enthusiast since he was age 6, when he and his dad hiked and fished near their home in Northern California.

When he was 16, Morrison started doing a lot of backpacking in the Mount Shasta area and dreaming of hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail.

After high school, Morrison served in the Navy from 1997 through 2001 at Naval Station Everett.

“Every weekend I was out hiking in the North Cascades,” he said. “I couldn’t get enough.”

Morrison graduated from California State University at Chico and moved back to Washington in 2006.

“So near the first of May last year, my parents, they drove me to the border with Mexico and dropped me off,” Morrison said. “And I walked home.”

Each day on the trail is memorable, he said.

Steward, who is retired, agrees.

Though he had been backpacking for over 30 years, Steward had yet to complete a long-distance trail. The PCT was breathtaking, he said.

“It’s a national scenic trail — so just seeing it from sunrise to sunset every day — the scenery is unbelievable,” Steward said.

It’s difficult to describe, Morrison said.

“Hikers who have done it or even parts of the trail share that bond of understanding,” Morrison said. “I’ve always been comfortable hiking by myself in the woods, with all I need to live on my back. And there you are, in some of the most amazing country the West Coast has to offer.”

One highlight of Morrison’s journey was climbing to the summit of Mount Whitney during his hike through the Sierra Nevada Range.

“I woke up at 1 a.m. and at around 2 a.m. figured out that my headlamp had died,” he said. “The full moon was setting, so there I was chasing the moonlight up the mountain, trying to get to the summit in the dark. I got there at sunrise and had it all to myself for awhile. It was pretty incredible.”

The PCT section that goes through the Glacier Peak Wilderness is still Morrison’s favorite part of the trail. The most difficult section was through the lava rocks in Oregon and the desert in California, primarily because of the heat. He sometimes hiked at night, and remembers one evening following a skunk down the trail and wondering if he would be sprayed.

Morrison laughed when he told the tale of making the stop favored by most PCT hikers: Stehekin, on the mountain side of Lake Chelan.

“It was pouring rain. I barely caught the shuttle down to town,” he said. “And then I spent all day and $40 at the bakery, just drinking coffee and eating pastries.”

In early September, Morrison tagged the Canadian border and headed back south to meet up with his folks at Hart’s Pass near Mazama, just off Highway 20.

“It was important for my dad to be able to pick me up,” he said. “And I was ready. There was a lot of snow up there. The last couple of nights, it was windy and about 29 degrees in my tent. Nobody wants to quit, but everybody looks forward to being done.”

After completing his hike, Steward drove up to Rainy Pass one Friday in September to serve as a “trail angel” to fellow hikers. He pulled his car off the highway and unloaded camp chairs, coolers, water and food.

“If I had one takeaway, it’s that people really want to do nice things and be nice people,” Steward said.

Morrison is eager to share his story at the event Tuesday at the Opera House.

“It will be fun to encourage others to hike the Pacific Crest Trail,” he said.

Herald Features Editor Sara Bruestle contributed to this story.

If you go

The Marysville Outdoor Adventure Speaker Series, sponsored by Roy Robinson Subaru, is offered at 6 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Marysville Opera House, 1225 Third St. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Cost is $3. Refreshments will be available for sale. More information is available by calling 360-363-8400.

Jan. 24: Ryan Morrison presents “The Pacific Crest Trail — A Long Walk Home.”

Feb. 28: Guidebook author Craig Romano plans to talk about the “Classic Hikes of Washington.”

March 28: Mike Woodmansee, longtime outdoor adventurer and author of a Mountaineers book, will talk about “Real Adventures in the North Cascades.”