Day 137, 23.0 miles

I woke up late again! It had rained all night but thanks to no wind and my super warm bag I stayed nice and dry! The rain stopped around 7:00am, which I was super thankful for since I didn’t want to pack up in it! The day was still super misty and wet but I eventually slowly made my way out. 

The last few days (ever since jumping into Daisy Lake), I’ve had water stuck in my right ear. I’m super susceptible to ear aches and infections and have been since I was young. This was worrying me and this morning was no different. There was a hot itchiness to my ear and I was worried it was infected, but after getting out of the tent to use the convenient pit toilet near the campground, my movement jostled some things around and out popped a huge ball of wax! I know I know it’s gross... But the pain went away and I felt a lot better! :)

Although I managed to stay dry, my pack and a lot of my other items were wet from yesterday afternoon and the rainy night. I equipped my nice warm gloves and semi-dry rain jacket and hit the trail! Since it wasn’t super rainy (just all around wet), I was sort of actually having fun in the morning. I was climbing way out of a deep valley and there were some cool things to see in the mist.

All of a sudden the trial was in really bad shape. I was going down and there were constant huge blowdowns and at one point the trail had been completely wiped out by a landslide!! There was a little official safe pathway cutting the switchback around it, but my curiosity got the best of me and I still took a peek.

Hooooly trail-moly

The rain got worse and then backed off, and then got worse and backed off again. The trail was quite overgrown and I got completely soaked with all of the bushes and bramble and trees that touched my clothes and transferred all of their water to me. I was having fun, and then suddenly I was not... It wasn’t too cold so I wasn’t in danger; it just sucked.

Oh yeah, if you have non-wool gloves and they get wet, take them off! If you keep wearing compromised gloves your hands will just get colder and colder, get very wrinkly, and your fingers might even start turning blue! 

No fun!

Up and down and up and down then UP and DOWN!! This is a really hard section of the trail! Since my socks from yesterday got wet and my dry socks from this morning got wet, I had no option for dry feet. As the day went on I could only imagine what they just look like trapped in my soaking wet shoes. Every once in a while I would stop to take a small break and try and shake out my rain fly and tent, but nothing really helped as everything around me was soaking wet, including the air! 

A big obstacle...

The trial finally leveled out and I was following a river for awhile. There’s a point where the old PCT route goes across a small river and then some sketchy logs over the huge Suiattle River. The new trail almost hits the river, but then goes West for 3.5 miles, crosses a huge bridge, and then East again 3.5 miles on the other side. As tempting as this nice 7 mile shortcut would be, I decided to stick to the new PCT route to avoid possible falling into a sketchy river from a wet log all by myself. 

I’m glad I made that desicion for three big reasons. One is that the trail was actually pleasant and didn’t have too much elevation change, and it was a nice change from all the ups and downs. Second, the trail went through an old growth forest, with HUMONGOUS trees left and right! 

Big trees!

Thirdly, as I was strolling along, I met a south kinder couple whose names were Pickleback and Jiminy Cricket. They asked if I was in need of some trail magic and whipped out a BBQ chicken sandwich and a welches fruit snack bag! Apparently there was trail magic a few miles ahead on the trail but they had just gone home. These two decided to pack out the leftover sandwiches south to handout to other hungry hikers! 

Score!! 

I got to the new foot bridge that went across the raging Suiattle river, and was glad that I didn’t chance a sketchy ford/log crossing. I went back East slightly uphill back to where the old PCT route connects to the new. From here the trail goes up a big mountain for 7.5 miles. I didn’t want to gamble there being no good campsites, and I had already done a decent amount of miles for the day, so I decided to stop “early” (6pm). 

I was able to hang my rainy out on some trees and let it completely dry before setting it up. I also put my gloves and all my socks on different small dead branches. Since the tentsite was just off trail it must’ve looked pretty strange to other hikers going by. I plan for a semi-early start tomorrow morning to get me up the giant hill and to get started on the first of the last two fire alternates!

Thanks for reading!!