Post Office closures hurt backpackers

Heather Tilert spent six months last year hiking from Mexico to Canada on the scenic Pacific Crest Trail, picking up food and supplies she had mailed ahead to small-town post offices all along the way.

Her last stop: Stehekin, Wash., a remote mountain community in Washington’s north Cascades that is reachable only by boat, floatplane or on foot.

But picking up supplies at the Stehekin post office may not be an option for Tilert and other hikers in the future.

Stehekin and 38 other Washington towns face the possible closure of their local post offices as the U.S. Postal Service examines its operations in the face of mounting financial losses. The agency is studying more than 3,600 post offices nationally where business is slowing and foot traffic is declining.

“Stehekin was the most beautiful town on the entire trip, and it’s definitely a place my husband and I would go back to at some point,” Tilert said. “And we wouldn’t have discovered it if we hadn’t needed to go to the post office.”

For Jim MacArthur, who owns Lyons Ferry Marina in Eastern Washington, the closure of the post office in Starbuck could have a big impact. Already working 80 hours a week in the busy summer months, MacArthur said he would need to carve out enough time to drive 35 miles to Dayton, the next closest post office, up to three times a week to get mail.

At least three rural post offices along the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail could be closed in California and Washington, including Stehekin.

Each year, thousands of people hike sections of the trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada across three Western states. Many who hike for long distances or the entire route send packages to post offices along the way to resupply with food or other provisions.

Backpackers would have to carry many more pounds of food between stops, which would make the trip far more difficult and much less enjoyable, said the 28-year-old Tilert of Brooklyn, N.Y., who spent six months hiking the route last year – a trip capped by her then-boyfriend’s marriage proposal at the Canada border.

The duo also mailed ahead their passports and other paperwork needed to cross the border into Canada, rather than carry it along the route.

The Postal Service said it’s possible it could open “village post offices” to replace many of those affected. Such offices would operate in places like local stores or government office buildings.

That could happen along the Pacific Crest Trail, said Cliff Courtney, whose family runs the Stehekin Valley Ranch for visitors.

Courtney said that option could ultimately save taxpayer money and help a local business stay open in the winter months.

“I believe it will prove to be too great of a hardship on the community to shut it down entirely,” he said.

Local businesses also could step in to accept packages for hikers, but if hikers can’t resupply in town, they’re likely to bypass it altogether, said Jack Haskel of the Pacific Crest Trails Association. The resulting inconvenience for hikers and financial loss for those communities could be big.

Stehekin has a year-round population of about 80 people, but dozens more have summer homes and cabins there.

“It’s a place to celebrate with other hikers,” Tilert said. “At that point on the trail, a thru-hiker has hiked 2,574.4 miles and can taste Canada. … You’ve almost completed your journey.”