One week in the North Cascades backcountry checked off the list! ✔️🥾🌲🧚‍♀️🏕️

Alexandra Hagel Pacific Crest Trail Volunteer Trail Worker in North Cascades National Park after week long self supported back country backpacking trip.

Thank you to the Pacific Crest Trail Association and North 350 Blades chapter for supplying me with this UNBELIEVABLE experience (+ backcountry passes, ferry rides, old + new trail friends, certified wilderness training, Stekehin bakery feast, etc etc etc.)

Being a part of this trail crew was more than I could ever put into words, but the simple fulfillment from giving back to nature and building friendships with some of the most fascinating + selfless people just keeps pulling me back to the trail. I was even able to forage and cook my FIRST morel mushrooms in the backcountry for the team (aka zero supplies) they were SO delicious! You already know this had my little mushroom heart singing out loud. To share my passions, but also to teach mushroom facts on foraging with my new friends was something I’ve only dreamed of.

It was a wonderful journey to say the least. We saw bear, cougar, and wolf tracks daily, learned every possible approach for in-field blister care, shared camp with 6-foot rattlesnakes, ate nightly dinners over jet-boiled fresh glacier-melt creek water, and met the first southbound PCT thru-hikers of the season.

Postcard from the trail- painting of Stehekin and Lake Chelan at the Stehekin Visitor's Center.

“What’s stehekin?”

“It’s this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere with the best bakery in the world that only a fairy can take you to…” — a real conversation I had summer 2023 at the north cascades trail school college, having NO idea I was manifesting a journey that would soon lead me to dancing on these same mountain tops and drinking from these glacier-melt creeks.

Alexandra and Eric running the cross-cut team near the High Cedar Camp ground in Glacier Peak Wilderness. Safety first!

Not going to lie, I shed a few tears when I stepped off trail and saw the ‘volunteer work party’ sign on the trailhead marker that I had hung up a week before, indicating our successful and bittersweet completed section.

Maybe it was the sheer exhaustion, the sodium-overdose from a week of dehydrated meals setting in, or the feeling that everything just seemed right in my little world. Or perhaps, it was the feeling of knowing it had been calling all along… 🏔

Beautiful snow covered mountain peaks of the Glacier Peak Wilderness in North Cascades National Park.

Megan, our assistance crew leader, leading the way to our crew work site for the day.

Morel mushrooms we foraged and cooked in the backcountry. My first mushrooms prepared while backpacking, the entire crew LOVED learning about these healing (and delicious) beauties.

Backpacker's City. All of the crew tents set up where we had breakfast and dinner together each day. I am sleeping in the Tarptent- I love it!

Katie and Perry demonstrating the 'boots and butts' technique and rolling a cross-cut log round safely off the trail.

Scenic spots along the North Cascades Highway, before the most recent fires. The most incredible shades of blues and greens.

Loving crew performing on-site blister care to a poor trail fairy... I leaned to much on this trip!

Hit me up if you’re interested in more info on volunteer trail work! I promise it’ll be something you won’t forget 👷‍♀️🪚

#trailcrew #pct #outdoorstewardship #promotionalmodel #adventuremodel #naturalredhead #mushroomforaging #backcountryhiker #outdoorwriting #naturebasedart

Outdoor Activities Nature Conservation Nature Photography Backpacking Nature Art

Originally posted Jun 25, 2024 https://medium.com/@pnwfairy/one-week-in-the-north-cascades-backcountry-checked-off-the-list-️-️-️-8a40604eef98