Day & Section Hikes Pacific Crest Trail: Washington. Adrienne Schaefer

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I WOULD FIRST LIKE TO THANK my husband, John, for supporting me through all of the ups and downs of this bumpy adventure. I would also like to thank our two boys, Tye and Reid, for sitting through all of my pictures whenever I would return from a hike and being on their “best” behavior when I was gone. I am forever grateful to both my parents for supporting me through all of my crazy endeavors, and I owe my mom special thanks for hiking on trails that she would rather have read about.

      This book would have never happened if it hadn’t been for Amanda and Judy Ford discovering this opportunity for me and encouraging me to pursue it. Tyler and Lindsay Kellet get special recognition for spending a semihypothermic afternoon on Little Giant Pass with me, and their words of advice helped make this book what it is.

      Numerous folks kept me company on the trails, including Aaron Sherred, Mike and Maurisa Descheemaeker, Reggie Descheemaeker, Rebecca Lofgren, Terri, Stacy, Jen Glyzenski, Carla, Dani Reynaud, and Abby Pattison. Thank you to the crew from Carlton, John Jorgenson, Surya and Bhavesh Dimodica, and Zeke and Kathleen Hirschstein for sharing their amazing garden (are you sure it’s organic?) and their homes with me.

      My good friends at Mount Rainier National Park kept me entertained on rest days, and Rebecca A., Andy, and Barry (my saving grace up at Three Lakes) made me feel right at home. While I’m a country bumpkin at heart, there’s nothing quite like a night of good wine and great food after a day’s hike; thanks to Bob and Sarah White for a memorable weekend in Portland. When I couldn’t drag anyone out, I could always count on my parents’ dog, Maggie, to join me. Come rain or shine, her enthusiasm to be out was contagious. I couldn’t have done the second edition if it weren’t for my dog, Lemah, who helped me carry all sorts of stuff into the Pasayten and Glacier Peak Wilderness Areas.

      Thank you to all the men and women who braved the mountains when they were truly wild and who laid the foundation for what we have today. My hiking experiences would not have been nearly as enjoyable if not for the hard work of the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service employees who maintain our roads, trails, and bridges.

      I could not have researched, written about, or hiked these trails without the help of countless other resources, including Dr. Fred T. Darvill Jr.’s Hiking the North Cascades; Ira and Vicky Spring and Harvey Manning’s 100 Hikes series; Chester Marler’s East of the Divide; Andy Selters’s Pacific Crest Trail: Oregon and Washington, also published by Wilderness Press; and the wonderful people at the Washington Trails Association who posted trip updates online. Their words were truly inspiring.

      To all of the other people who touched my life in one way or another during this incredible journey through the Washington Cascades, thank you.

      —Adrienne Schaefer