Sometime before falling asleep last night, I had to creep out of my tent and use the portapotty one last time. The stars were simply incredible. To be in a town and the light pollution be nonexistent is pretty amazing. I stared awhile before crawling back inside my quilt and going to sleep.
I slept sooooo good! I was actually awake before my 6:30 alarm went off. I didn’t pack though, like I originally planned. My quilt was a little damp from condensation so I left everything up, but got my dirty clothes and wallet to head to town for chores. The three of us left our dirty clothes first in line, Marquis stayed with them to put them in once he was able, and Margot and I got quarters from the store and walked to the shower house at the campground in town.
Margot went first, and while she was showering, Mads came in. We all chatted while the room steamed up from the hot water. After Margot, I got my 5 minutes in the hot shower. I really cannot wait for real conditioner. I don’t like these 2 in 1 shampoo conditioner combos that make my hair look fried. Whatever, the hot water felt fantastic and I cleaned as much as I could without a washcloth and only 5 minutes to make it happen.
I walked back to town afterwards, leaving Mads to shower next. We finally got our laundry in, then Margot and I went to the little cafe for breakfast while Marquis went for his shower. I got biscuits and gravy with eggs and bacon.. plus coffee and a huckleberry mimosa. Quite nice if I do say so myself! I was actually so full from that meal that I couldn’t eat lunch!
We resupplied, packed our stuff, and still had 2 hours to kill before the shuttle. It was weird, we kept getting finished with things way faster than I thought we would. We sat around talking with everyone, until it was time to pile in a truck for a ride back to trail. We were slow to get moving at the trailhead.. but once we did it was easy going. Smooth, calm trail.. mostly in the shade of the forest. Many people hate when we walk through thick woods, but I enjoy it. Just not the mosquitoes.
Before I knew it we had made the 10 miles we were planning on. When I got there Marquis already had his tent mostly set up, which told me he didn’t want to keep going.. so, I slowly started scouting out my place to camp, too. There were already 2 other tents set up. I was starting to put mine up when Margot appeared. I got water to filter and sat near them to eat dinner.. the only flat space for my tent is on the other side of a tree.
While sitting there another couple appeared.. they were going to set up on top of my tent, but thankfully they went down a bit farther.. like where she originally pointed would be closer than I was to Stache that night.. and that was a bit much. As I’m laying in my tent now, people are making excessive noises with their water bottles and I’m finding it very annoying, even though I haven’t been in an irritated mood today, so I don’t know why I’m finding their normal end of day racket so infuriating.. but atlas I am, and it makes me smile all the same because I know my bestie Lauren would understand my crazy. As I lay here, not tired at all yet, but with my earplugs in because I might scream if one of them flops their water around like that again.
Anyway. It’s only 7:30 and I’m considering going to sleep, earplugs in place. Or reading some of a new book that I have on my kindle app. Maybe my sudden irritation will be gone when I wake up, you know, after I get some more sleep. Haha. Man I’m such a weirdo. Oh, well. Sweet dreams, y’all.
Compared to previous days in Washington, the scenery today wasn’t all that mesmerizing. Not to say it wasn’t beautiful, because it was, and I enjoyed it for the most part.. there just wasn’t any “wow!” Moments, ya know?
I was woken up by my loud ass neighbors who lack respect for any other human beings, especially those sleeping, at a lovely 5:30am. I was pissed. It’s one thing to wake up and make noise packing, because that can’t be helped, but to wake up and start talking and laughing loudly to where I can hear you through my earplugs makes me slightly murderous. Like, why? I was wide awake at 11:30pm, but they wouldn’t have known that, BECAUSE I WAS QUIET. Asshats.
I could tell Margot was annoyed, too. I don’t know that Marquis ever gets annoyed, but once they got louder, he was packed and left camp lol, so maybe he does, too. I started packing at 6:30 and got on trail a few minutes after 7, making my way down to the water source to fill up. Some guy that had camped next to Margot, was one of the loud ones, AND smoked and let his smoke blow into her tent, came up to get water at the same time as me.. and my god he is chatty as hell at 7am. Bro, please just hush.
My walk through the woods today was just that.. walking through deep woods with little ponds or lakes here and there and mosquitoes pretty much everywhere. They turn me into a self harming lunatic, constantly slapping my arms or whacking at my face and ears.. and this is with Picaridin and deet on, and a headnet, too.
At lunch I stopped by some other hikers at a lake and ended up in full rain gear and headnet just to sit down for a bit and rest my feet. I had eaten my snacks and whatnot while walking, but the toes were aching and I needed to be off of them for awhile. They were joking around with me and saying how the mosquitoes aren’t even bad right here right now.. and it’s like, sure, I get that-I know they get worse, but that doesn’t make the ones that are here and swarming my ears and biting my back suck any less..
I stayed a little longer after Margot caught up to me, but then I kept moving, because someone passing promised they get so much better in a few miles. They were right, it did get better.. and the forest was beautiful to walk through, soft pine needle and dirt trail, no rocks or real climbs to worry with. I got in my head a little bit, maybe because my brain didn’t have to focus on my footing as much or slapping at bugs as often.
I realize that I do tend to talk negatively to myself at times. I think I appear mostly positive on the outside to others, but inside, my brain is constantly swirling, constantly self-deprecating. Not to mean that I don’t talk positively to myself, too, but when I think back on the way some situations played out in my past, I tend to blame myself, assume I’m the one that created the problems, pushed people away, caused myself to be left alone, created the reasons I catch myself feeling unlovable. I don’t know why I got wrapped up thinking about these things today, but it definitely made the time pass.
I’d think through scenarios, wonder what things would be like now if A, B, or C had happened instead of what did. That would turn into wondering if I’m destined to always feel the way I do, not bitter, but definitely even more untrusting of others and way less willing to ever be caught being vulnerable again. I don’t like feeling like a failure, it’s part of why I’m so stubborn and strong willed, it’s where the majority of my determination comes from. And that works with a lot of things I enjoy doing, like these hikes, but not so much for relationships. I’m just not good at them.
Anyway. At some point I came across Marquis and lizard (not my AT lizard) sitting at a campground area. I sat too, and we waited for Margot. We talked and snacked and enjoyed the brief time without many bugs at all. When Margot got there, she sat and snacked, too.. then we started hiking towards our planned camp for the night. We got water from the stream just a quarter mile from camp, and when we came rolling through, every site was taken. Son of a biscuit.
I was irritated. We’d already gone 23.8 miles at that point and my feet were aching. Even still, nothing to do now but keep moving. Two miles and some climbing (albeit not much at all) later, I got to camp, just before 8pm. There are 2 other tents here and after we set up and started eating dinner, someone else appeared too. I’m not liking all of the current overlap in hikers.. I think I liked it better when I’d only see my friends at camp, and not 29374627291 other hikers. Maybe I’m still crabby about being woken up this morning.. day 55 and I’m still not a morning person, even if I do get up way earlier than I’d like every single day.
Anywho. I’m in my bed now and think it’s time to get some sleep. It’s already 9:30 and mostly dark. The father south we get, the less sunshine we have.. at the northern part of the state it was staying light until 10pm.. that’s no longer true. Ok, here’s to some shut eye, goodnight!
What a day, what a day. I slept really good, for the first time in several days, maybe? I don’t know, it almost feels like good sleep is hard to come by on an air mattress on the ground, because my arms will go numb and cause me to need to roll. I got up at 6:30 and quickly packed, then headed over to get water down the side trail. Some guy parked his tent and poles right beside the log we have to step over to get to the water.. you know, the last water for like 11 miles.. and had the audacity to “huff” because we were walking by his tent. Sorry, dude, you should have picked literally any other spot in the area, and people wouldn’t be passing close to your tent all morning.
I feel like I cruised pretty well the first half of the day. There weren’t any bugs bothering me, I was listening to the end of an audiobook (The Hotel Nantucket), and things were just going well. There wasn’t really any climbing yet, besides right at the beginning and it was over before I had a chance to lose my breath over it. I was still in deep woods, and now there weren’t any lakes either.. just tall tall trees and hillside.
Around 12:30 I stopped for lunch at a road crossing, basically just somewhere flat to lay out and much and rest my feet. I relaxed and as the time inched towards 1pm, I packed up and got my pack on my back. I started to feel a little woozy, and at the same I saw Margot heading my way. We talked a minute as I tried to ignore the way I was feeling, and then she asked if I was ok, saying I looked a little pale. As she said it, I was starting to get that black tunnel vision and feel all the color drain from my face.
I plopped down, my pack still on, and laid back.. spacing a little bit but not blacking out. Once I was on the ground I immediately started feeling better. Margot was worried, of course, and dropped her pack. She quickly walked off to go to the bathroom but then came back a minute or so later and sat with me until I started feeling better. Today is hot, so I’m guessing it was just dehydration. But it was odd because I had literally been sitting for over thirty minutes, I ate and drank and felt perfect, until I stood up.
When I started feeling better we continued hiking together, Margot insisting on being behind me in case something happened. Within a mile or two we came across a swimming hole and decided to get in, hoping the cold water would help cool me down, if it was the heat causing my issues. The creek water was incredible and we ended up staying there until 3pm, swimming awhile before laying out to dry off. Again-zero bugs bothering us! It was the most glorious time, and the best part of the day.
Afterwards, I felt totally normal again! Like the almost black out business had never happened at all. We were cruising, we still had a long way to go to get to camp, but we made a plan to stop 5 miles before camp, eat dinner, and then hike there regardless of the sunlight.. and we were doing great, until suddenly I see Margot ahead of me drop her trekking poles, scream, and start hauling ass back to me. Oh shit! Snake?
Nope. Apparently only I panic like that over snakes.. she had just been stung 3 times by a hornet. She was in tears, and in a complete panic, because there were more flying about, following her. We quickly backtracked to a dirt road we had just passed, and as she was telling me what happened, tears streaming down her face, her leg on fire from the stings, I ended up fighting off 2 more hornets.. I was afraid my swatting them off her was going to make them sting one of us, thankfully I was able to smash both of them before that happened.
We had to figure out what to do, we didn’t want to go back where the hornet’s nest was, which had to be somewhere close to where she got stung and left her poles. We were on a dirt road, so we checked our maps to figure out where it went and if we could reconnect with the trail. We thought it would, so that was the plan.. road walk around and reconnect up the trail a bit, away from the angry hornets. The problem? Her poles.
She looked like she was about to lose it all over again when she thought about going to get them. I said I’d get them, and the relief visibly washed over her. I took off my pack and put on my rain gear, zipped myself in all the way, and quickly darted down the trail to grab her poles and get back to her, praying none followed me. The spot where she dropped her poles had pink tape off to the right side of the trail.. it makes me wonder if someone marked the nest.
I didn’t have any problems and none followed me back that we saw.. although we were both still a little shaken up. I took off my gear and put my pack back on. We made our way down the dirt road pretty quick-fear of the hornets returning and all. As we walked, I could see Margot’s leg getting patchy red in places and starting to swell. Shit. That’s not good. I knew it hurt, she was hyped up on adrenaline but could feel the throbbing pain down that leg so much she was starting to compensate on her other foot to relieve some pressure.
We got maybe a quarter way down the dirt road, only to come to a huge fence and gate, locked, that said no trespassing. Margot was not thrilled. I told her it would be fine and talked her into climbing around the broken fence wire off to the side in the woods.. reluctantly she agreed and we continued walking down the road, now dotted with weird buildings, a couple houses, wide fields and lots of dirt roads. It was eerie, but I wasn’t too worried. Margot was afraid someone would show up with a gun or “release their dogs,” nahhhh. I told her if anyone appeared, just start crying and we’d tell them about the hornets.
It was fine. We got to the back gate and climbed through the fencing wires in the woods, then quickly saw where the trail was and rejoined it. There was another creek and it was beautiful, but we kept moving. It was a hellacious climb, especially after I almost passed out earlier and now Margot has a swollen, throbbing leg that was just attacked. We had to climb almost 2 thousand feet in elevation gain in just over 4 miles. It. Kicked. My. Ass.
When we got to the dirt road crossing close to the top, we stopped for dinner. We went back and forth about camping there or continuing on the entire time we sat, cooked, and ate our food. Once we finished eating and cleaned up, we decided to push the 5.1 miles to where Marquis should be camping. It was already 7:50 by the time we headed back on trail, so we had out headlamps easily accessible and started moving.
We finally rolled into camp just before 10pm, that we only saw in the pitch black, because Marquis saw our headlamps and turned his on, so we could follow the glow onto the side trail to the campsites. We all three shared our day, and then completely exhausted, Margot and I got our tents up. I’ll be honest, the only reason I’m typing this all up right now is because my phone needs to charge and this keeps me awake long enough to make sure I disconnect the cords.. so I don’t drain my battery.
But even still, it’s 11:11 (I miss you, Andrea), I’m wiped the hell out, and my battery is only up to 71% so I think I’ll just risk it and disconnect the cord if I wake up when I roll over in the night. We have 20 miles to go tomorrow to the to Cascade Locks and the Bridge of the Gods.. we’ll officially be DONE with Washington state! And hopefully Curmy and Cholula will be able to come get us, but if not, we can camp at the marina and see them on Sunday. We did this section way faster than we thought we would. Originally we didn’t think we’d get there til Monday.. well, assuming Margot and I can walk tomorrow, we should be able to make it by late afternoon at the latest. Ok, that’s all I got. Love y’all, goodnight!
