Author: Courtney

Start: 259.4

Stop: 268.2

Today’s miles: 8.8

Total PCT miles: 456

Uhhh.. kinda funny story.. I may have almost attacked Marquis last night. At some point I rolled over and faced him, but was mid-dream that I can’t remember now.. and when I saw him, my eyes got wide and I had a brief moment of thinking he wasn’t real, so I grabbed his forearm.. kind of hard-so hard that he startled awake and did like a, “AHH!” So, I did too.. and then I let go, said a weird, “sorry, I forgot where I was,” rolled over and went back to sleep. We laughed real hard about it this morning, and thankfully he said he just fell right back to sleep, too. Good god, I’m losing it, y’all.

We slept in until 8ish. Thankfully Margot wanted to go get coffee at a cafe or something, so instead of packing, we walked to a Mexican restaurant across the street and ordered breakfast burritos and quesadillas with coffee. Y’all. It was fantastic! We devoured it, had several cups of coffee, and then made our way back to our room by 10 to pack.

We left walking right at 11am and headed back towards the highway. We passed a pharmacy and went in just to make sure they didn’t have the bug lotion we wanted.. they didn’t, but we did all buy new headphones. It was worth the stop. Margot also got a marker to write on her tyvek sheet that goes under her tent. We walked to the highway on ramp area for the direction we needed to go and Marquis and I started putting our thumbs out while Margot wrote out, “PCT Hiker to Trail” on her Tyvek.

It took a whole 11 minutes before a man with his son in a nice truck pulled over to take us back to Snoqualmie Pass. They had just done a hiking trip together and were headed back to Spokane, going right by the exit we needed. They dropped us off in front of the pancake house. Margot and Marquis added some stuff to the hiker box inside the Inn connected to the restaurant, and we walked over to get a corn dog.

I was in no way hungry yet, but a hand dipped corndog is a hand dipped corndog and deserves to be eaten, hungry or not. We hung out at picnic tables in front of a convenient store.. then, Marquis had some people he knows surprise him! They had been following his garmin and had just hiked some in the area and decided to give him some trail magic! How cool! We all sat around talking until close to 1pm before we all decided we needed to get a move on.

Back on trail, the climb out of Snoqualmie was kind, even in the heat. The trail meandered easily up and down and through beautiful forest. Trail maintenance workers passed us coming back from working all day, making this trail pristine to walk on.. no blow downs or overgrowth. We were shocked to hike out over 8 miles today, to a gorgeous lake. I’m feeling a little nauseous and didn’t eat dinner (I did eat some of Margot’s peanuts), but I think it’s from being over stuffed from the town food.

Marquis made us a fire and we sat around talking until almost 9pm. We had to wait for our tents to dry out before setting up our sleep stuff, so we weren’t in any rush. Now, it’s 10:42, a late night for me, and I can hear owls hooting nearby and some kind of small critter near my tent. I’m praying it doesn’t smell my food and try to get into my tent. I also pray it’s actually a little critter and not a nimble large critter, because I have to pee again here in a sec. Haha. I think I’ll have my bright headlamp on for this one, because it’s a little unnerving.

Tomorrow, we’re planning on just over 17 miles and the terrain/elevation gain and loss doesn’t look nearly as difficult as the last few weeks have been. Something tells me that might mean more blowdowns and bugs-but we’ll see. Time to go pee and get some sleep. Morning always comes way too fast for me! Sweet dreams, yall!

Start: 268.2

Stop: 285.3

Today’s miles: 17.1

Total PCT miles: 473.1

I had another good night of sleep, even if I didn’t actually fall asleep until after 11pm. I didn’t want to wake up, either.. but I did, finally, at 6:45. And, happily, my tent was dry as a bone. Wahoo!

The other two were already up with tents packed. I packed and was ready to go by the time Margot finished her coffee. It was a beautiful day-albeit somewhat chilly and definitely overcast for the entire day. Most of the time I was walking into a sea of white clouds with no idea what views I was missing.

The trail was kind and soft, even if my feet still ached by the end of the day. It would gently climb up and down, then suddenly have a steep climb I wouldn’t be expecting.. only to go down again just by the time I was about to start complaining about the burn in my quads. Basically, it was perfect.

I finished an audiobook (The Family Remains) and started another (The Rose Code) and was completely entranced all day. I’d walk up to Marquis or Margot and not even realize they were stopped for water. I actually only drank 2 liters today, because I’d get chilly every time I’d drink any. Margot and I carried water to dry camp at a beautiful spot with supposed views of Mount Rainier. We toted extra water 3.5 miles.

When I got there, Marquis was already there and said he thought he wanted to keep going down to the valley, because it’s cold up on the mountain top and he doesn’t like dry camping. We waited a few minutes for Margot to get there and I let her decide before I said either way. My feet did hurt, and I did tote extra water, so I was happy to stay, but I could have also continued on.. the only issue for me about continuing is the one site ahead in a mile would be where another hiker ahead of us was going.. so, that site is gone, and the other 2 within 2.3 miles were along this old abandoned dirt road and not very flat or even or appealing to me. Plus, the idea of any kind of climb in the afternoon sucks.

Margot’s feet were hurting and she said she didn’t think she’d make it another few miles, and that she preferred to stay where we were. I decided to stay with her and Marquis pushed on to find another spot lower in elevation and hopefully near water. I’m a little sad he pushed, but I also understand his reasoning. We’ll hopefully meet back up in the morning.

Margot and I set up our tents and belongings in one hell of a wind burst. The ground is hard so I had to reinforce my tent stakes with big rocks, hoping none come loose. We ate our dinner together, and figured out the plan for tomorrow.

We will only go 15 miles, because in 20 miles there’s a stream and a cabin that have reports already this year of people getting norovirus from. It happened last year too, so we’re thinking it’s probably the cabin and probably the stream by it.. and obviously we want to avoid it at all costs. So, we’ll camp 5 miles before it, pass it during the following day and skip that water source all together. If we had pushed more today, then we’d have even a shorter day tomorrow, because there isn’t a whole lot just after the cabin to camp at.

It is cold here tonight. It’s not even 8 and I’m bundled up and ready for bed. I was considering listening to my audiobook a bit longer, maybe pause at a clean chapter break, while I wait for my phone to finish charging.. but I also feel like I could close my eyes and drift off to sleep right this second. I know I should wait for my phone to charge, to not forget and fall asleep with my battery bank running all night, but I don’t know if I can hold out. So, with that, goodnight y’all.

Start: 285.3

Stop: 303.9

Today’s miles: 18.6

Total PCT miles: 491.7

I wish I could say I slept well, but I didn’t.. soo.. that would be a lie. I woke up around midnight to rain pattering on my tent, and had to go out into the light drizzle to pee. In doing so, rain droplets got onto the mesh of my tent and almost came inside onto my stuff, but luckily everything stayed dry.

I didn’t get up and get going until almost 8am. I was cold outside of my quilt and couldn’t make myself get out of it after tossing and turning all night. Margot left a good 15 minutes before me, but I felt good once I was hiking. The trail was overall calm today. No grand views, really, until the afternoon and getting to finally spot Mount Rainier in the close distance, but otherwise the ups and downs were surrounded by forest. It was still beautiful.

There were a few climbs but they were shorter than days before and while they still took my breath away, they weren’t horrible. At some point I caught up to Margot and we chatted a bit before continuing on. We met up with Marquis at the last water source for the next 12 miles. Annie and Riley were there, some hikers we haven’t met before appeared, and then so did Stache. We talked and got our water.. and talked some more.

About an hour later, I came to a nice open sunny spot and could see Margot just ahead. She waved to me, and I yelled back that I was going to eat lunch and dry my tent out here. She came back and joined me. We lounged on our ground cloths, shoes off, eating and relaxing and sunning for at least an hour. When she finally looked to see how far we still had to go, it was over 12 miles. Whoops.

I had been feeling real good all day, but apparently I hadn’t been moving all that quick.
I was still listening to my audiobook, so when I got going again I pressed play and was transported back to England during World War II. I didn’t care how long it did or didn’t take me to get anywhere today, I was enjoying myself tremendously. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and it was just a touch chilly-making it perfect hiking conditions.

My book finished when I got to the water source and where Margot and I had originally planned to camp until Marquis talked us into pushing. I got my water and the campsites were all taken by people I’ve never seen before. One man sort of rudely told me all the sites were taken already, which, technically we could have gotten cozy and fit. But, I didn’t want to camp close to these people I didn’t know. I talked to another hiker up a bit, and she basically hinted that I could hike back 2 miles for a good spot. Ummm. Ma’am. Why the hell would I go backwards TWO WHOLE MILES? Weird.

Either way, I let her know that Margot was coming and asked her to tell her I that I was going to continue the 3 miles to where Marquis mentioned, and that if her feet hurt, she could stay here and I’d see her in the morning. The girl was nicer now, and promised me she’d let her know. From there, I hit the first chunk of blowdowns all day. I was getting irritated and my feet were sore, but once I got through this burn zone and those fallen trees it was real quick going.

I made it to Marquis just before 7pm. He had cleared out 2 spots for smaller tents in the woods and showed me where more space he cleared out by the road, and where Stache was setting up. I literally had to set up right next to him, guy-lines almost touching, because everywhere else was too rocky or slanted or an actual fire pit. As I was trying to figure out my best layout, Margot appeared! She made it! And not long after me at all!

The girl had told her the info for me, and even offered to let her set up right between her and her friend, but she said she felt good and continued on. It’s a good thing her tent is small, because she just perfectly fits in that little area Marquis had cleared. When she and I were all set up, we sat practically in the trail and ate our dinner together.

Originally I wasn’t cold, but once I got back into my tent I had to put my warm leggings on and close my vestibule. It’s windy here, too, but nothing like last night. My feet keep getting sharp stabbing pains running through them, that make me jerk and jump like I have restless leg syndrome.. but it’s just the feet. Nothing else is sore or tender. You’d think these things would be used to the endless torture I force them to endure, but they still complain every chance they get.

So, with that, I’m going to try to let them rest and let me get some much needed sleep. Here’s to hoping I don’t toss and turn all night and drive Stache crazy, since I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have earplugs. I definitely will have mine in tonight. I don’t really like being so close to someone else’s tent. He’s done the AT though, too, so I’m sure he’s used to rolling around and mattress racket. Sweet dreams, y’all.