Day 132, 20.2 miles

Last night never got really cold which I was thankful for. I was able to wake up at a respectable time and get out on the trail. The higher I climbed however the colder it got, and if it wasn’t for the constant uphill workout, I surely would’ve had to don my rain jacket at the very least until it warmed up. One bummer to the morning was that I snagged my brand new right shoe on a sharp stick and ripped a hole in it!

:(

Luckily my foot didn’t get hurt, just the shoe! And that’s what shoes are for right?! The morning was so beautiful that I soon forgot the mishap. There were lingering clouds in the surrounding peaks, and combined with huge cascades of water coming down from multiple sides, it made for quite a scenic start to the day.

I climbed waaaaaay out of the valley and was rewarded with peak view after peak view! I had left camp last except for numbers, and near the top of the hill I caught up with Hauser and Happy Feet. Now that the trail is nearing an end, I find myself to be even more social than before, and sort of proffering hiking with others instead of solo.

Happy Feet and Hauser

We caught up to Cheesesteak and the three of them went to a lake for an early break. I didn’t feel like stopping so I pushed on, figuring I’d see them later for lunch. Today was another perfect gorgeous day! 

I descended way down the three side of the hue mountain we had climbed hours before. When I got to a big river in the valley at the bottom, I ran into Baby Blanket who had been there for probably 45 minutes taking his lunch. I read on Guthooks about an ice cold waterfall less that a mile past there so instead of stopping for a break I hiked onward with him for a bit, catching up on the past days’ events. 

On the way I found a sweet hiking stick and Baby Blanket loves it! He hiked with one on the AT and really made it his own, carving, softening, and adding to it. He was really stoked on this one!

Baby Blanket and his new walking stick

When we got to the small creek and waterfall, he set to work on carving it down and breaking it to a perfect size. I also asked him to take some photos of me plunging into the ice cold falls. It was such a great swimming hole!

B4...

This water was ICE COLD!!

Afta...

Brrrrrrr!! It was so cold! The coldest water I’ve been in on the whole trail guarantee! I’d say 1.5 times colder than Ridge Lake yesterday, and that puppy was COLD! That being said it was SO nice and refreshing! I spent about an hour hanging out in the sun afterwards drying my dreadies. I thought maybe the others would catch up, but I assume they probably stopped for lunch down at the main river where I ran into Baby Blanket. I pressed on. 

I went up another big hill. You know, I’ve been noticing a pattern here. We’re always going either up or down here in Washington! It’s very similar to the Sierra except without all the snow and mosquitos! Here are the elevation profiles from yesterday and today. This will help you understand why I’m only doing 20’s through this section, and not 25-30’s!!

Yesterday

Today

Yes today was a bit easier than yesterday, but the reason why I didn’t want to push onward is north of the blue dot you see, (that’s me), is another big climb and I wouldn’t have wanted to end a 25 miles day way up above 5,500ft on a windy ridge. Today instead I hiked on Aline up the next big hill, took a break half way up to let the sun hide behind the mountain so I could hike in the shade, met up with everyone else and meandered slowly to camp, arriving before 6pm!

It feels good to be at camp so early! We all had dinner together while it was still light, talking and swapping stories and best/funny moments on trail. It really is a big community here, and I will be sad to leave a lot of these awesome people I’ve met along the way.

The intrepid crew is short one Manza, Clean Turkey and Verde, all of which who stayed in Snoqualmie for an extra day. Google and Patient Zero went ahead a few more miles to try and get to town tomorrow. Calamity and Skywalker are kind of off doing their own thing. It’s this coming and going of awesome people that really make this trail for me. Every time you get into the next town there’s always someone you haven’t seen for awhile or someone new that happens to be hiking out the same time as you and kind of melds into your group for that next section. What a cool mini-life I get to live out here. What a great way to spend the summer!

Thanks for reading!