Day 141, 18.3 miles

I slept in nice and late in my super big tent. I don’t think it rained at all last night! So much for the thunderstorms and 1/4 inch of rain! I’ve decided that I can’t trust the weather forecast for this area, since little pocket micro-climates exists all over in the hills and valleys, and since we really are headed into winter now in the Pacific Northwest. That being said, here’s some scary forecasts for these next few days right where I’ll be hiking: 

I hopped on one of the bikes and headed to breakfast! The restaurant behind the store was open and I had some French toast and some great potatoes! I actually caught some decent WiFi there and was able to write and upload yesterday’s blog. After I ate and drank everything on the table (including all the water in the pitcher), I jumped back on the bike and headed back to the Roost.

Initially I was going to hitch out later in the afternoon and just do 10 miles today. I wanted to wait until Claire’s lunch break from school so I could call her since Mazama actually has decent service in town. However, when I checked the elevation profile of the next section it appeared that 10 miles would land me way up high on a pass in the possible bad weather. I decided to dip out earlier to try and get 15 miles, up and over the next pass and back to lower elevation for the night. .

I was expecting a tough hitch but I was pleasantly surprised when I got picked up in less than 10 minutes. My deiver’s name was Ben, and he was a really cool guy! He has two younger kids who he likes to take backpacking. He and his wife also do trips themselves and sometimes he just goes into the mountains solo. He even gave me some sausage links from the local meatery, so good! 

After getting dropped off, I walked the ~0.3 miles to the trailhead and met two hikers named Cardboard and Meegan. I didn’t realize this at first but I had met Meegan way back in the desert when she had a different trailname: Squirrel. She was with Mougs that day Julian and I made new friends around a fire in the rain when multiple people burned their shoes and socks by trying to dry them out!

From Rainy Pass the trail climbed up for awhile. One thing I’m gonna miss is all the neat water sources along this trail. I’ve gotten so used to just filling my bottle up with clear and cold water from beautiful mossy cascades tumbling down the mountainsides. I guess a sink in a house is fine too! 

It seemed like the weather didn’t know if it wanted to rain or not. I had my rain jacket on just incase. I broke out above the trees and started getting some sweet views of the surrounding area.

I came around a corner and hit Cutthroat Pass, and my camera stopped working!! This was a bummer because this was such a cool area! I was way up high and exposed and the ridges and peaks around me were spectacular. There was still sun directly where I was but all around me I could see gray clouds and rain falling straight down in the distance. What a crazy sight! Just sheets and veils of distant rain, and then sunshine where I was! 

I descended down from Cutthroat Pass area and down into a lower valley travers. After a couple hours and turning my phone on and off, it finally started working again. At one point I turned a corner and could see that the trail was headed right into one of the walls of rain!

Looking back to the sunny side where I came from

When I hit the rain area, I got way colder, and my fingers gradually became super cold and numb. I found that they do that when I’m using my trekking poles because the straps sort of cut off the circulation in my hand making my fingers freeze up way faster than they normally would. I always use my poles, so my fingers always get cold.

2,600 miles baby!!

The trail dropped way down into the next valley, and with some tree cover and much lower elevation, I started to warm up again. The sun started to pop back out, and soon it looked like noon on a sunny day instead of 5:30pm on a rainy one! In the trees I kept seeing a “new” type of mushroom that I haven’t seen before. I call them Manta Shrooms.

A Manta Shroom

I had picked out a spot on the map that I wanted to camp. It was the lowest in the valley, had water, and was just before a big climb for the next day. About 3 miles before I got there I saw Rachel and Alcatraz. They told me that they had seen about 5 other hikers headed to thatbsame site, and they were sure there would be no more room there so they had stopped earlier. Since it wasn’t even 6pm yet I decided to keep going. I’m pretty good at finding sites to camp at!

When I got to the stream and camping area I saw Caribou, Streetfighter, and guy named Dragon who had flipped up to Washington from further back on the trail to beat the bad weather. I ate my dinner with everyone and then headed into the thick trees to scope out a site. I ended up finding a flat one tucked away in the trees so I’d be protected from potential rain tonight. It’s getting real guys!! :)

Thanks for reading!!