And this is where it all began...the Goat Rocks Wilderness. This section of the PCT is known to be one of the most beautiful sections of trail in WA and on the entire trail for that matter. Some people call it the beginning of the WA Sierras. It has been rumored to have fallen from the Heavens. All of that sounds wonderful right? Who wants to sign up to go? Hell I couldn't wait to get there until I made the mistake of reading the guidebook. The first few lines discussed the sheer beauty of the surroundings and the ever present snowfields and glaciers. Still sounds great right? The next few lines tell a different story. They discuss the 3 mile section of the PCT affectionately known as the Knife's Edge. You see the Goat Rocks were named for the rocky terrain of the mountains and the mountain goats that live in them. This is the southernmost region of the US that mountain goats live and
they chose to live here because they can climb terrain other creatures (like humans) cannot. Well this section of the trail is supposed to give one the feeling of being a mountain goat. I don't know about you but I want that feeling about as much as I would like the feeling of having leprosy. The guidebook goes on to say that many have compared walking the knife's edge to walking along a beam at the top of the Empire State Building as it was being constructed. It also said that many people have been known to get Vertigo as they walk it due to the steep sheer drop offs on BOTH sides of the trail. This sounds like the last place I want to be and why in the hell would they include this on a trail that people have hiked for thousands of miles at this point and must cross for completion? There must be some mistake.

I pondered this for days as we walked because you see when you do nothing but hike all day every day that is all you can do is think. We have climbed huge mountains, the tallest in the lower 48. I have been up crazy steep passes and some were covered in snow. This can't be that bad I reasoned. My line of logic was working until we met a disheveled south bound hiker a few days from the rocks. She told stories people near death on the rocks, how she almost died, a woman was blown over, a mountaineer cried for his mother. It was horrible. She said you slid down shale, lava rock, and gravel for miles near an edge that fell into nothing. Turtle and I did all we could do, we dismissed her as a crazy solo hiker who had lost her mind as she hiked. That was the only way to make sense of it. There were no way her stories could be true. Right? We continued North towards the rocks.