Woke up in the morning to this

And went back to sleep. Slept on/off until 8, really not wanting to go outside. Laying there in my mostly dry warm spot, I was dreading it. The rain was non-stop and seem to be mixed with a little hail. The temp was now 40 degrees and it didn’t look like it was letting up today.

Decided to spend another 30 minutes heating up oatmeal and some spuds. This was going to be my only decent meal today. Got to thinking about my plight. As always, the answer is the same. Get up and start walking.

So I packed everything I could inside the tent, put on everything I had to keep me warm, and slipped on those wonderfully cold and soggy shoes. Jumped out and snapped a pic with my soon to be too-wet-to-use phone.

By the time my tent was broken down and stowed away, I was freezing my ass off. First thing I did was hike like a madman until I got warmed up. Then things started to look up.

Ran into Workhorse and Chai walking ahead of me. We wound up hiking together for a few hours at a decent pace. Got to learn a bunch of new stuff about them. Wonderful folks. Today they started at 5 AM from the lake and had passed my tent while I was inside feeling sorry for myself.

As the morning wore on, the trail began to turn into a series of little creeks. Some spots were really muddy and full of slick roots. Somewhere along the way Workhorse took a tumble.
We got him up and situated, walked for a bit and he took another tumble. Then another. The tread on his shoes were shot and he was getting no traction. As the day wore on his pace became slower and slower, mixed in with stumbles and occassional falls. I moved to the back and decided to stay there until I felt we were in a safer spot.

I have to give that guy a ton of credit. He was cold and hurting, but just kept plugging away. Eventually the pace got so slow that I felt like I was barely moving. I felt like I might be spooking him a little so I stopped and harvested huckleberries at various intervals. During one of those intervals I ran into my favorite cousins Papa and John. Those guys just crack me up. Always showing up when I’m in a huckleberry bush.

We catch up for a bit and they go ahead of me. I hang with Workhorse and Chai until we get into better weather and within 3 miles of the end. We are now in the ski resort area and the trail just switchbacks down. They decide to take a long, much needed break. I hang for a bit, but I can feel the shivers coming on. They are dressed a little better than me for the weather. They encourage me to take off and I do, practically running up the hill to get warm.

The last miles end without much incident. I’m getting signal on my phone and out of the blue a facetime call from my uncle. We have a nice chat as the phone gets covered in mist and the camera’s picture gets all fuzzy.

I see the buildings for the resort and find a shortcut down. Finally out of most of the rain, I head to the parking lot to sort out where to hitch hike. Some ladies in the parking lot feel sorry for me and give me a bag of fritos and a snickers bar. No room in their car for me.

I munched on the offerings while thumbing a ride along the highway. Just as I finish the snickers bar, a weekend hiker pulls up and offers me a ride. So I got a meal and a ride. The hike ends on a positive note.

Checked into the Cascadia Inn at Skykomish. Had some beer, ate a big fired chicken dinner, hung out with the cousins and two of their relatives who came to visit. I’m drying out and feeling much happier.

It rained yesterday evening, it rained all night long, it is raining right now. Actually, it is not rain most of the time. It is just this falling mist. So I’m kind of charged up this morning. My inner tent, backpack, and stuff is still dry. It should work out.

I put together my plan and got every broken down to minimize exposure. Tied the rain fly outside my pack, put on my pack cover and rain jacket. The Salty hat works perfectly keep the rain out of my eyes and off my open collar. Big shout out to Steph for the Patagonia rain jacket she gifted me a few Christmas’ ago. That thing is an awesome piece of gear.

So, in summary, I was ready for action.

My feet are getting wet, my shorts slowly get soaked, and my phone touch screen becomes impossible to use. But there’s a bright side. The forest looks different and the mist around the mountains is kind of cool. Nobody I run into really wants to talk, so the mind starts to wander.

The movie Braveheart. Where the Scotsmen are running up and down mountains in the cold rain wearing just dead animal skin and a kilt. Wet shoes? What shoes? These guys were always running somewhere through shitty weather. In times of peace, they’d probably run 20 miles and 5k of elevation gain just to deliver a sack of flour.

So what do I have to complain about?

Around this point there is a break in the drizzle long enough to take a hero shot.

The trail has become more interesting. I’m walking through several narrow valleys at the base of a lot of steep rocky inclines. Started seeing a few of these.

Then I arrived in the next valley and saw this. It was amazing. The whole area smelled like a lumberyard. Truly. Notice how all these trees are sheared off at the same height. Was talking to another hiker about this and he figured the snow had frozen hard around that level. Then an avalanche rolled through and sheared them off. Whatever happend, it looks like a giant lawnmower rolled through.

Well the next highlight is my personal favorite. Yee ol river crossing of death. Let’s blend in a bunch of slick, random logs somebody threw across the gap. Some ultra runner gal scoots past me and goes over, almost losing her balance. I shot this vid just after she crossed.

Well it ended well. Crossed that and the other minor falls with no incident. Don’t remember Mel Gibson doing that.

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I prefer all my water crossings to look like this

Well all that excitement got me hungry. The rain stopped for a while and I found a nice flat spot to dry out my rainfly. Made some Chili Mac, oatmeal, coffe, and had a candy bar. I don’t know, like maybe 900-1000 calories. Still hungry.

Chatted with a lady on her lunch break going Southbound. Her daughter is a triple crowner and is still thru-hiking the more obscure long distance trails. That is another level of hiking. Stormtrooper was telling me about the Wisconsin “Ice Age Trail” that he did. Something like 1,200 miles of poorly maintained to non-existant trail. Drinking out of muddy livestock ponds. Ugh. That is another level of thru-hiking that I never want to experience.

I pack up and run into Workhorse and Chai taking their own break. They passed me while I was eating lunch. We caught up for a bit, had a few chuckles. They are aiming for Waptus Lake which would only be a 16 mile day for me. I tell them I’m going a little further.

Of course, it starts drizzling again and this time it seems to be getting stronger. The drizzle changes to rain more and more often. Wind is coming up. Yeah this is starting to suck.
My inner Scotsman is challenging me with the idea of just night hiking through this shit and get to Steven’s pass. I have been battling with him all day on the topic. I could probably pull off a 30 today and do it.

Well I pass the lake and the creek feeding it and start another big climb. I figure I’ll make my decision pretty soon.

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At the top of the ridge was my first campsite option. It was 7PM by now and I just made another 2k climb for a respectable 22 miles for the day. I had been checking the wind direction with a compass and it had really good cover. The ground looked like it would shed the water ok. So this was home for the night.
Got a small break in the weather to slap my tent up and get my stuff inside. Had to take a couple more trips outside to trench around the tent and reposition some stakes as the rain really picked up. Finally inside I felt pretty secure. Made dinner and went to sleep.

The wind picked up to 15 / 20 mile gusts and the rain got really heavy all night long, but everything held together. No leaks or failures, but everything I have basically went from dry to either damp or muddy and soaked. Over night the temp kept dropping to the point where I had to wear my puffy with my sleeping bag. Slept surprisingly well.

The host warned me that another guy was going to take over tomorrow morning. He said that guy would have all sorts of tasks for me to do….so I better get an early start. I’m up and packed before the others and skip breakfast. 7am and time to get to work.  Work on hiking, that is.

Clouds are coming in and the wind is getting gusty. There’s supposed to be a storm coming. I suppose it is time for me to sample this Washington drizzle that I’ve been hearing about all these years. Fortunately there is no rain today.

Coming out of these towns is typically rough on the first day and this one is no different. I’ve almost a 3k climb while getting passed by a bunch of trail runners doing their thing. Getting above the tree line the scenery becomes beautiful.

I took a bunch of pics and short videos. I’ll let them tell the story. Ran into lots of backpackers out here doing week long hikes. Seems every bunch has a dog or two. This must be a popular spot.

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The sky begins to let loose some dirzzle. Not bad, but more is coming. I pulled down a forecast from my sat tracker and it looks grim. According to the guthook comments, there is a big river crossing coming up and the bridge is out. I want to cover that before the rain swells the river.

I get there around 7, make the crossing on a log and find a decent spot next to the river to setup camp. I’m glad I’m not going over that log in the rain. It had no bark and was slick….rain would make it much worse. Wish I’d taken a pic of that crossing. Anyway, as I’m setting up my tent the rain starts falling.

I jump, make some dinner and relax. 21 mile day and about 6k of ascent. That’s a big day, especially given how rocky and sketchy some of the trail was.

Which reminds me. Back at Kracker Barrel, this Southbounder had told us how nervous they were on some bits of this. Stormy likes to collect these anectdotes for later laughs and reflection. I suppose I do as well.

So this guy is saying “if you take the wrong step, you could slide/fall” kind of thing. Followed by an example of a slip or wrong step. Looking at it from the eyes of person who has only done a few hundred miles so far I can see their point of view. From Stormtrooper, me, and others who have done this kind of mileage…it just the way it is.

Wondering about that. I’ve had plenty of falls, slips, failed poll plans, bad steps, and the rest. They are generally recoverable. Also I start to build in a natural redundency. In the back of my mind I am already planning for something to fail and have layers and layers of fall back options. It is like learning to ride a motorcycle. The kids my age learned was how to crash well. Meaning, how to know the crash is coming and mitigate the damage. I wonder if other hikers feel the same way.

While there are a few isolated instances of fear for me. The only place I consistently feel exposed is a sketchy river crossing over a long log, hopping rocks, or fording above the thighs. There are no fallback options. Either it works out or I get pounded. It is there that I truly have to manage my fear.

So, in conclusion, I’ll let Stormtrooper speak to that Southbounder’s fear: “Man, I think that guy was full of shit.”

So today, normally, I’d be updating this blog. I write a few things, but the internet here sucks and frankly I’m more interested in chatting with people. Our host makes us an excellent breakfast of pancakes and huge ham slices. That gets devoured. He leave a few ham slices and pancakes laying out that I turn into sandwiches and eat a little later.

Stormy and I our lounging in the common area chatting. He’s checking in on all the folks we got to know on the first couple weeks of the trail. Most of them are all clumped together in Northern California around Chester. Apparently the fires are really bad down there. The trail is closed North of them and they either do some convoluted road walk or get a ride to the California-Oregon border. Meanwhile they are partying. Gourmet finally got his wish.

I chat with Alice in the morning and she is like “You have to let Stormtrooper go free! “. We are laughing about it. It is nice to take some time and just talk about whatever. I miss her so much. I am ready for this hike to be over.

Well the day wears on and Stormtrooper is getting all fidgety. He packs his stuff and we get a couple pictures together. Then he takes off around noon. Kevlar, the other hiker, finally gets his stuff squared away and takes off Southbound. The host takes off and leaves me in (sort of) charge. Just like that I’m alone.

Well the first thing I do is take a video of the place. It is really a neat setup. This place was built in the ’30’s, then added on to several times. The organization owns a bunch of land around the facility. The host told me that for a $150 / year fee, folks can use it as much as they want to hike / ski / snowshoe the area. I’m checking out the modernization work that was done and I’m super impressed. Folks are spending a lot of money on this place and the work (electrical, foundation, sprinkler system, heating, etc is all top notch. No way this is done on that membership fee. There must be some huge endowment backing this place.

WAC Tour

Well sitting there all alone is not for me, so I head to the restaurant and find some hikers there. Workhorse and Chai met again and have a long chat. He has Parkisons, just turned 60, and is realizing his dream of hiking the trail before he can’t. I give that guy a lot of credit. They’ve jumped around a bit doing something like 1500 miles of the trail and will finish up in Washington.

While I’m eating my burger, Patches turns up and we chat while I consume massive quantities of draft beer. Beer. I love Beer. The nectar of the Gods. Anyway, Patches is from Northern Cal and recently retired. He now lives in the Ozarks. He is sectioning part of Oregon and Washington to finish. Ex-welder. Tough guy and fun to talk to. He’s slightly below my pace but I’m sure we will meet again. I find out from him that Papa and John rolled into town last night and are already back on the trail. He’s taking off a day after me.

I stumble back to the hostel in the evening and chat with our host for a bit. No dinner for me. I sort out my resupply and hit the sack early. Our host downed some wine and somehow got inspired to put on a performance outside my window.   

Rocking The Woods

I was getting some Deliverance vibs.  Is this the song before he cooks me or something?   After a while he moved off to a trail and did his thing in the distance and I chilled out.   Seriously, I’m happy for him.   He’s doing his thing and relaxing in the isolation.  As long as he keeps his clothes on, haha.

A couple hikers roll in while I’m laying there and they crash after taking a shower. Amathis and McGriddle, I think were their names. They are Northbounding, but they both look pretty fast. Doubt if we will be seeing much of each other.