18 hours bags Kettle Crest Trail
Four friends from Spokane hike the Kettle Crest Trail in a day, through roadless areas that could be protected as wilderness.
Four hikers recently marched the entire 45-mile length of the Kettle Crest Trail and called it a day.
Siblings Aaron, Joe and Micaela Theisen plus Derrick Knowles of Spokane started at 5:45 a.m. from White Mountain trailhead and trekked north, hitting Sherman Pass at 11 a.m. and scarfing a dinner at 5 p.m. on the flank of Midnight Mountain. They finished at Boulder Pass at 12:15 a.m. last Sunday.
“The best part was watching the sun rise from White Mountain, which in my opinion is the most beautiful area in the Kettle Range, and then watching the golden light hanging on the tops of Bald, Barnaby Buttes, Snow Peak and Edds Mountain as we hiked westward,” said Knowles, who’s worked with Conservation Northwest to propose Kettle Range areas for wilderness designation. He said his mind was playing games with him near the end, “making me wonder how much farther the trailhead could possibly be.”
His GPS ran out of battery juice halfway through, but the elevation gain and loss is colossal, he said. Still, they’re calling the hike “the cakewalk,” and they celebrated with cupcakes.
Oh, but the way, trail runner Jake Wilson of Colville started with the group, but left them in the dust. He finished in 11 hours.
