We have been hiking to Stehekin for the past 14 years. This year we thought our hike would be stymied by wildfire but at the last minute trails were opened and the Stehekin Valley Ranch (our destination) was able to open for guests on 9/5/2024. After much texting and discussion my hiking partner and I decided to hike from Holden Village to Cloudy Pass, then take the PCT #2000 trail thru Plummer Basin to High Bridge. The PCT #2000 trail thru Plummer Basin had been closed due to the Pioneer Fire for most of the summer but opened up on 8/28/2024.
If you decide to hike this route the first thing you need to do is get your bus reservation from Lucerne Landing to Holden Village. Contact the Registrar at Holden Village via email to reserve, they ask for a $10.00 donation. Their current schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then make your reservation with the ferry. We love the parking at Fields Landing, so we made our ferry reservations from there.
Day one we arrived at Holden Village and were on the trail by 12:30 p.m. We spent our first night at Hart Lake. A couple of Holden employees came up to camp for their "weekend" otherwise no one else was there.
Day 2 we hiked from Hart Lake to beautiful Cloudy Pass. I love it there. No one else was there.
Day 3 we hiked thru Plummer Basin to Hemlock campsite. Once we made it thru Plummer Basin to the wooded area we ran into a lot of brush and downed trees. I lost my bear spray crawling over and under the trees. The next morning at Hemlock Camp we started seeing PCT hikers.
Day 4 we hiked along Agnes Gorge to 5 Mile Camp and saw a few more PCT hikers. All hurrying to catch the 3 p.m. bus to the Bakery.
Day 5 we made it to High Bridge by 12:30 p.m. We had beautiful weather the whole trip. This is a nice hike with lots of good water access, there is nothing to get nervous about.
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