Month: July 2023

I woke up to the sound of those same non-thruhikers talking that I fell asleep to last night. So irritating.. but I did sleep great so I can’t complain, really. I gathered up my dirty clothes and my electronics and headed down to the lodge.

I set my stuff down with Heidi and went inside to order breakfast. Stuff was charging, my burrito came out quick, life was great. Margo came over and the three of us talked a bit. Sometime after 10, Margo and I went to do laundry and shower. We shared a load of laundry and used the detergent pods someone left behind-because the store only sells the bag of like 20 instead of individually like any business that caters more to hikers. I don’t think they like us much.

I showered first and it was a quick quarter operated one.. much nicer than Fish Lake in my opinion. Someone had left their mini shampoo and conditioner bottles and I was THRILLED about that. I had to awkwardly air dry again.. least favorite part, but man feeling clean felt great! While Margo showered, I painted my nails and laid on a picnic table.

Waiting on our laundry, A-Train and Drake showed up! The day in the snow they decided to set up camp where Wolf, Pica, and FoodTruck camped the night before-the rainy but snow free campsite. They just didn’t want to risk climbing back up that elevation into more snow, especially when all of their layers were wet. Smart choice.

They started doing their laundry and shower chores, Margo and I decided to walk to the bakery, and Maddie joined us. We walked and talked and got a lift half way. I ate another pesto mushroom croissant (Margo says that’s not a croissant lol) and some pizza slices. Not too bad! But definitely better yesterday right off the bus and first access to non trail food.

Marquis and the couple Margo had been hiking with before catching up with me (Annie and Riley) got off the bus while we were there! I was so happy to see more people we knew 🙂 They had to hop back on the bus though to get to town and set up camp, we knew we’d see them again soon.

We strolled on our way back, talking, laughing, stopping by everything we passed.. including a garden that sells local honey harvested from the bees they keep, goat milk cheeses and all kinds of other things. Beautiful set up, and refreshing to see. It makes me want to have a green thumb and grow my own veggies-but let’s be real, I’m ever home long enough.. and Aunt Kathy is the one with the green thumb.

We made it back to town and when we saw Annie and Riley, Annie had a snow basket for a trekking pole she found on trail that she was going to put in the hiker box.. IT WAS MINE!! I had lost it day before yesterday and spent 20-30 minutes backtracking looking for it! How perfect!

More hikers started to show up, Wolf & Pica, FoodTruck, Marquis, several we didn’t know. There’s an area under the deck to the lodge that we all hung out at for hours talking. Margo and I ended up getting some dinner to go and eating down there, too. Everyone laughing, cutting up, getting serious talking about the snow coming up and their plans.

Maddie made the big decision to get off trail. The bouncing around, changing plans, pushing miles in scary situations just wasn’t the headspace they wanted to be in or their idea of spending their time wisely, simply because these stresses aren’t a good time and aren’t fun-I totally get it. Another hiker, Peaches, decided the same thing today, too. It makes me so sad, the challenges we’ve been thrown have been tough, and it makes me wonder how far away I am from one more sketchy area or flip decision causing me to change my mind, too.

Eventually we made our way back up this hill from hell to our campsites. It’s actually warm tonight, which is quite the happy change.. and, because I’m surrounded by actual PCT hikers, it’s almost completely silent at 9:40pm, with over 10 tents set up. Hiker midnight is legit. Goodnight, y’all.

Start: 80.6

Stop: 85.7

Today’s miles: 5.1

Total PCT miles: 273.5

I slept so good! I even got up early, without any prompting, to get on the WiFi at the lodge and try like hell to get my blog posts up. That WiFi isn’t wonderful, but it was faster with the majority of the people with access being asleep still.

I was sitting there at 7am and to my delight, Maddie was down there too, sitting on the dock reading a book. There’s just something about some people that you just feel in your soul are solid and good and insightful in ways I don’t think I am. Even at 7am my heart felt a little heavy that they’d be leaving today.

I got breakfast right as they opened the door at 8am, another burrito, just as yummy today, too. I paid for my next WiFi voucher and continued on my mission to upload my posts. The pictures to download to the posts take FOREVER on good WiFi. It was slow going, certainly, and I definitely wouldn’t have enough juice to post my pictures to Facebook.. that’s gotta wait for another town and legitimate service.

I talked to mom and that always makes me happy. Yesterday I got to talk to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Keith, too. I’m missing home a little bit. Not having an easy connection out here has been more difficult for me than I imagined it would be. Simply because a week at a time is long when you’re experiencing incredible things, but can’t tell the ones you love about it yet.

I went to pack up my stuff at 9:30 and then left everything at the picnic tables to walk to the post office. My box wasn’t here! Noooo! The woman told me to come back later, like between 11-2 and hopefully it’s on the incoming shipment. Because this town is so remote, we have to wait on the daily ferry that brings the day’s mail. Ok, no problem.

I was shocked at how many of my new friends were willing to not leave out to hike until I got my box. Some definitely still hit the trail at a normal time, but Marquis, Margot, and Silky were dead set on not leaving me. A-Train, Drake, Wolf, and Pica already decided they were going to zero today regardless.

While we waited, some of us went swimming in the lake for a bit. Margo is a legit long distance swimmer and loved every moment of being in that very cold water. I swam a while, too, not nearly as long as her, but longer than anyone else lol something about beautiful water, cold or not, it’s meant to be enjoyed. And we did just that! It took awhile to dry off in the sun afterwards, but it was awesome!

My box wasn’t there when I went to check, and the woman told me to double check the bear boxes that the ferry folks put the UPS and the FEDEX boxes in. I told mom specifically to send it USPS only, and in a priority mail large box-but lo and behold.. there was my package! The one at least 3 other people waited to hike out for.. haha Thank god it was there, but I felt real bad that everyone waited around for me, and were willing to wait until 11-2 TOMORROW too before hiking out. Wow.

Once I had my box and was opening everything up and organizing-everyone was quickly like, “let’s get this next bus then!” Which was literally already parked next to us and about to leave. I rushed to get my stuff together, snatched my phone off the charger-hoping it had enough, and got on the bus. We stopped a the bakery again, on the way-and I got my 3rd pesto/mushroom/Heaven croissant and a cinnamon roll.

We got dropped off and naturally it was pouring down rain. We all got under a ranger’s porch waiting out the storm. Within an hour we started hiking. We made it 5 miles to a rushing creek and set up camp. Silky and Pebbles (Marquis) made a fire and the four of us sat around it eating dinner and laughing so hard I could cry just thinking about it. These three are just my favorites. Hilarious and yet still capable of quality conversation, too. Like fun to be around on the surface, but I’m certain I like them on a deeper level as well.. the trail does that-brings out vulnerabilities and causes people to get close quick. I love making these connections.

The fire is out and it’s a little more chilly than the last two nights back in Stehekin. I think we’re planning 14 miles tomorrow and will take it easy before hitting the snow. I personally really don’t like the idea of the snow that’s coming, but I’m praying that being with people will make it easier for me, and possibly even enjoyable too.
Ok, I’m tired. Goodnight!

Start: 85.7

Stop: 99.9

Today’s miles: 14.2

Total PCT miles: 287.7

Man, I’m still a grump when I wake up. I heard Silky saying, “good morning” over and over to let us know she was leaving, and all I said back was a loud, “NOOO.” Haha it was 5:55 and there just was zero motivation to get up that early! I did, finally, at 6:20.. those 25 minutes made all the difference in my sanity.

Margo, Pebbles and I packed and headed out just after 7am. The trail was gorgeous, winding through deep woods with a raging river next to it.. it was steadily going up elevation wise but the way the trail wound through the trees it didn’t feel like it. All day long, we’d leap frog each other, take breaks together (with Silky, too, we caught up to her taking a break pretty early on), eat lunch on a log together.

As pretty as it started, the afternoon got hot. I was moving so slow, it felt like all of my energy had been zapped-so zapped that I kept wondering if it was my thyroid, because I’ve been tired on trail, but I was barely moving. It was frustrating, for sure.

Margot and I crossed a fast moving river on a wide but broken log.. well I did, Margot crossed on a smaller but solid log that had me nervous as hell watching her. FakeSnake, the Australian meteorologist we met in Stehekin, helped guide us over. I was grateful he was there and watching, one wrong step and it wouldnt have been pretty-either tangled under the crazy limbs broken in the water or sailing all the way down until you hit new limbs in the water. Margot and I waited on the other side to make sure Pebbles and Silky went over the correct/safest way.

From there we started climbing in elevation. The trail would weave in and out of tree line, and when it was out-it was overgrown valley with bushes that cut and stung-and reopened the scab on my shin. Dammit that hurts. When that finally chilled out, because we got high enough elevation wise to not have anymore of those gangles of bushes, it turned into water crossings, rocks, and snow patches.

Margo and I decided to just walk through some fast moving water, instead of trying to rock hop to keep our feet dry. Silky and Pebbles took their shoes off to keep them dry and so we got ahead of them. As we went, the water crossings got more frequent, sometimes the current coming right through trail, from all the snowmelt. I immediately thought of how happy I was I didn’t take the time to take off my shoes, since it wouldn’t have mattered for me now anyway.

As we crossed a snow field that wasn’t steep in anyway, Margot and I noticed the storm clouds rolling in. We picked up our pace a bit-the rest of our day was uphill, and right now we were very exposed. Before long, we heard thunder-felt it really, and then the lightening started to crack across the sky. But, so far, no rain. Not yet. We stayed together, both jumping when the thunder would rumble through our souls, and eventually we came across a decently wide area of tree cover. It looked safe from falling debris, it would hopefully keep us dry when the rain we could see in the distance finally made its way to us.. we decided to stay right there until the storm passed. I did not want to keep climbing in elevation and risk being exposed with the rain came-and because that lightening was terrifyingly close.

Pebbles got to us, happy we had said we weren’t going to hike out until it passed over, and minutes later Silky got to us too. Minutes after that-the rain came. Silky got out her Tyvek and we all four huddled under it, until the rain water came tunneling through the middle of the trail, and the middle of the four of us! Thankfully, the trees were sheltering us from the majority of the rain and hail.

Peter and Pickup showed up during our pause from hiking. They were absolutely soaked through. We talked a bit and once the rain let up, we all hiked out together. I wasn’t quite ready, but I wasn’t going to stand there alone in the storm. Immediately, we were all soaked through, too. Oh, hell. Nothing to do now but walk, but I was honestly still struggling pretty bad.. slow moving, especially uphill.

The higher we went, the more the trail turned into a sea of hail.. like the trail was covered with hundreds of thousands of white and clear dippin dots-seriously.. marble sized hail accumulated so much that it was several inches deep in some places. It wasn’t snow, and it was slippery-like lots of ice cube balls to slosh through. Watching every step carefully and trying to move quick enough to warm up some, because no matter how hot I had been only an hour ago, I was now shivering in my rain jacket.

Margot and I were the last to make it to the planned campsite. She seemed spent-cold and out of it. The icing on the cake-Pebbles let us know as we got there that there were no more campsites that weren’t currently under water. The majority of the area flooded out, and Silky, Pickup, and Peter had their tents in the only non flooded spots left. There’s a specific four letter “f” word that came out of my mouth in that moment. Betcha can’t guess which one?

Margot looked utterly defeated. She was shivering and her eyes were blankly staring. I knew she was hungry and needed some hot food to eat, but the rain picked up again and I thought sitting there to eat wouldn’t help the situation any. I remembered seeing some flat looking areas off a trail junction back a quarter mile and talked them both into hiking back to there, to scope out tentsites and eat. They agreed.

When we got close to the junction, I got Margot’s water bag from her and sent her to find a spot (basically to make her keep moving in this random freezing weather), and Pebbles and I filled up all three of our water bags at a fast moving creek. We went to find Margot, only to realize what looked flat from the trail was actually not flat at all. We probably spent a good 15-25 minutes trying to find something decent, then settled on the original very lumpy and sloped spot we saw from above.

We got all 3 tents up, albeit it uneven, but it would work for tonight. We fixed Margot’s tent-it randomly had a hole in the roof and that’s a recipe for disaster in the rain. Then we got as warm as we could and ate dinner. As drastic of a change as this afternoon was from this morning, and as upset as I personally felt that we made it to the campsite and didn’t feel like anyone was willing to make room for us in a storm, I really had a great evening with these two. We laughed and joked and laughed some more until close to 9pm, when we all huddled in our tents to try to get warm for the night.

Im currently so cold and can’t tell if my stuff is cold, wet, or just damp.. like even my sleeping pad feels wet but I know the inside of my tent is technically dry.. it has to be the moisture in the air, the humidity, the condensation brewing from my hot breath meeting this frigid air.. yeah, it’s time to tuck these arms in and get warm-or try anyway. Sweet dreams.