Start: 187
Stop: 195.8
Today’s miles: 8.8
Total PCT miles: 383.6
Clouds. That’s what I slept on last night. It had to be actually Heaven, certainly. I slept so dang good! Even still, we were up before 7:45 making sure everything was packed and ready when Anthony appeared.
We ate breakfast muffins and scones on the front porch, with coffee. It was a perfect morning and starting to look like a beautiful day-the 4th of July! Already! Who knew?! I messaged Anthony at 8:30 asking him to just let us know he he was on the way so we could check out of the rooms, and he responded 30 minutes later saying he overslept and would pick us up 9:30-10 ish. No worries, we had to wait until 10am anyway to get Margot’s resupply box at Steven’s Pass.
We chatted and I worked on the blog while we waited. He arrived at 10 and took us back to the lodge, where I bought some caffeinated Nuun tablets from him, along with coffee packets. The others got what they were missing and then he took us to the pass. It was already close to noon. Man, this day is ticking by fast! And it was getting HOT.
I laid out my tent to dry and charged my phone, Margot organized her food things, and we hung out with the other hikers there.. Annie and Riley, several we didn’t know, and then Silky and FakeSnake appeared so they hung out too. We didn’t end up getting on trail until 2pm. The hottest part of the day. Uphill. In the sun. I had my new shoes on. And. All. The. Mosquitoes. It was great, really really great. I swear.
We made it all the way to a lake, after a steep uphill, some calm downhill, then some meandering. The bugs never stopped.. I was drenched in sweat and wearing my bug net. My shoes hurt the first mile or two, but then they were fine. Just enough to make me worry. We set up camp fast as hell again, the three of us only-not sure where the others hiked on to. And once again I ate dinner sitting in my tent warding off the little bloodsuckers.
The lake is beautiful, but there’s no way we can be out there to admire it. Now, it’s 10pm and we’re hoping to get up around 6 to get moving before the heat and bugs takeover our sanity. We’ll see how it goes! Goodnight!