Pacific Northwest Trail Collection

In 2015 I hiked the 1,200 mile-long Pacific Northwest Trail. I started in Glacier National Park, in Montana, hiked across Idaho's panhandle and all the way across Washington to the Pacific Coast in Olympic National Park. It was my first thru-hike and I was totally unexperienced as a long-distance hiker. It was a huge challenge but it completely changed my perspective on life for the better.

Check out the full documentary here!
A Sense of Direction: A 1,200 mile walk on the Pacific Northwest Trail

Purchase Prints Here

All photos are for sale as prints, canvas wraps or digital downloads. Just head over to the store and specify which one you'd like.

While Glacier national park is an amazing place to start the PNT, there is no easing into the mountains. RIght away we are thrown into multiple thousand foot climbs at high elevation.

20150706-IMG_4029

20150706-IMG_4053

20150707-IMG_4352

20150707-IMG_4365

From the monumental peaks to the intricate wildflowers there is always something to look at. Stoney Indian Pass lies between these two mountains. The approach to this pass all morning is just one mind blowing sight after another.

20150707-IMG_4554

20150711-IMG_6237

fishin for dreams

20150712-IMG_7078

Every region has its outliers and Stahl Mountain is the outlier of the Kootenai National Forest. Where most of the mountains are shrouded in forest, this peak breaks through with commanding authority. If you look closely you may be able to see a cabin on top of the peak. That will be our home for the night.

20150713-IMG_7483

The cabin on Stahl Mountain has two stories and I volunteer to sleep upstairs, while Spaceman Spiff, Mr. Bean and Marathon sleep downstairs. Just after we turn the lights out I hear some commotion below me. I roll over to look through the hole that the ladder drops through, marathon’s headlamp illuminates two humungous rats as he chases them out the cracked door. That wasn’t all of them though, I find another one, the size of a football, traversing the edge of the window just a couple feet above my face.

In the morning I find that they had chewed some holes in my hat. For some reason that was the only item of ours that they gnawed on. Oh well I think it gives the hat more character.

20150718-IMG_9350

20150719-IMG_9461

20150719-IMG_9476

20150720-IMG_9497

20150721-IMG_9520

Northwest Peak is on an alternate route that is definitely worth taking. From hear we spot the first of many wildfires we will encounter on the trail. Luckily this one is behind us.

There are many alternate routes on the PNT and it’s a bit like a choose your own adventure story. Some of the alternates are much better than the official route and the Northwest Peak alternate is one of those.

From the top of the peak it’s technically a bushwhack because there is no trail, but it’s more enjoyable than most of the trail. We descend from Northwest Peak on loose granite onto the knife-edge ridge line, follow it to the left, then climb Davis Mountain on equally lose granite. From there I continue along the sharp ridge while Fitty descends to go around the next peak. After summiting the third peak on this ridge line I descend to find the trail.

We are in Idaho’s panhandle now and the mountains have changed again. The Selkirks might be the most underrated on the PNT. It’s a relatively small section but the mountains are entirely unique. Loose crumbly rock has been replaced by sheer white granite walls.

I’m so happy to be out of the bushwhack and moving at a normal pace again that I decide to climb Lookout Mountain. There is a shorter and much less strenuous route around it but I’d rather celebrate. 3000 vertical feet later the gamble was definitely worth it. Patches of rain pepper the landscape in every direction and occasionally one will pass over the peak, only to allow the sun to light up a rainbow on it’s backside after it passes.

20150728-IMG_1438

The trail always seems to provide me with just what I need to keep going. After getting lost (a little more seriously than normal) I finally find the trail and it takes me up onto a ridge line just as the full moon is rising in the east and the sun is setting in the west.