Posted on Sep 22, 2023
One hiker's eerie night trekking past a North Cascades wildfire
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Mike Campos emerged from days of backpacking across the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in north-central Washington to learn that a spreading wildfire had blocked off a 40-mile stretch of trail between him and his goal of walking to the Pacific Ocean from Montana.
Campos is what’s known as a “through hiker”: somebody who hikes the entire length of a long trail.
You might have heard of people walking from Mexico to Canada on the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail.
Mike Campos has done that walk, and the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, and, most recently, the 1,200-mile Pacific Northwest Trail from Glacier National Park in Montana to Cape Alava at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula.
“I think I just passed 13,000 miles in the last six years,” Campos said during a trailside interview in September in Olympic National Park, more than 1,000 miles from where he started walking in June.
For the past six years, the nomad raised near Houston, Texas, has worked seasonal jobs near national parks to save up enough to hit a trail again.
Campos is what’s known as a “through hiker”: somebody who hikes the entire length of a long trail.
You might have heard of people walking from Mexico to Canada on the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail.
Mike Campos has done that walk, and the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, and, most recently, the 1,200-mile Pacific Northwest Trail from Glacier National Park in Montana to Cape Alava at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula.
“I think I just passed 13,000 miles in the last six years,” Campos said during a trailside interview in September in Olympic National Park, more than 1,000 miles from where he started walking in June.
For the past six years, the nomad raised near Houston, Texas, has worked seasonal jobs near national parks to save up enough to hit a trail again.
One hiker's eerie night trekking past a North Cascades wildfire
Posted from kuow.orgPosted in these groups: 
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Posted 9 mo ago
Responses: 2
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Maybe if th National Park Service and other entities would start doing controlled burns ton rid the forests of fuel for these types of fires. Places that do controlled burns seem to have fewer major forest fires.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."To make it to the Pacific on his own two feet and shave about 80 miles off the big detour, Campos decided to walk past the Sourdough fire on a road that might be closed by the time he reached it in a day or two.
“I heard the highway was closed. But if a trail, in my opinion, is open to a closed highway, I’m assuming they're leaving it open for people to get their cars out or maybe to walk out,” he said. “There's definitely a gray area.”
Campos decided he would walk an 18-mile stretch of state Route 20, the North Cascades Highway, at night to make it in and out of the fire-closure area quickly."...
..."To make it to the Pacific on his own two feet and shave about 80 miles off the big detour, Campos decided to walk past the Sourdough fire on a road that might be closed by the time he reached it in a day or two.
“I heard the highway was closed. But if a trail, in my opinion, is open to a closed highway, I’m assuming they're leaving it open for people to get their cars out or maybe to walk out,” he said. “There's definitely a gray area.”
Campos decided he would walk an 18-mile stretch of state Route 20, the North Cascades Highway, at night to make it in and out of the fire-closure area quickly."...
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