Author: Jim

I awoke to cool temperatures and clear skies.  The last weather report I got said four more days of rain.  I’m glad he was wrong today.  Late in the afternoon I had sprinkles, but I have dry socks and shoes and that’s what’s important.

I woke up at 5:30 and hit the tunes while preheating the clothes again.  It takes about fifteen minutes and that’s perfect for morning music time.  I was on trail by 6:45 and even though the ground and grass wat still soaking wet, I could not see a cloud in the sky.  The picture was taken about a mile from my campsite when the sun finally crested the mountain across the way.  The trail turned East and I almost stopped to get my sunglasses.

The grass continued to be wet until close to 11 am which seems like a long time for everything to stay wet and needless to say my shoes had no chance of drying.  At about noon, I passed two other hikers who had stopped at the spring and had everything laying out drying.  The grass was still putting out alot of moisture, so I was still waiting for it to dry out first.  I had stopped for a mini lunch at 11:00 so I was hoping 2:00 would be a perfect time to stop for main lunch and a drying session.  There were several power lines about that spot in the trail.

There was quite a bit of climbing and descending all day.  At this point hiking is hiking and you just keep moving.  But some of the grades today were pretty steep and hard on the ankles.  

At one point in the morning the trail popped up on a ridge and Mt Baker was staring me in the face.  And it looked far snowier than all the other volcano mountains gains we had passed so I am assuming the rain of the last three days had deposited fresh snow on the mountain.  Yesterday seems the likely day since I had snow flurries where I was, and Baker is at least 4000 ft higher than where I was at the time.

As I began to hit the power lines in the afternoon, I was scouting for one that had rocks and not grass to stop on.  The second one was perfect.  It had three big rocks for sitting about 100 ft uphill from the trail.  I headed straight there, got out my lunch food, then took off the shoes and socks and put the flip flops on.  It felt great, and the blisters from yesterday were slightly worse on one foot and better in the other.  I pulled the bandaids to let them dry.  By the time I had eaten and headed out, both socks were dry and the shoes dry on the upper, but not the insoles.  It still felt much better being dry.  

Within an hour, the shoes were completely dry, and as luck would have it, that’s when it started to rain.  I put the pack cover on, but the jacket was too hot.  The area I was hiking apparently had gotten alot of rain, even though it was barely sprinkling on me.  I was not getting wet, but my shoes were.  I was using the poles to try to take the wetness off the grass and huckleberry bushes, but I was still getting wet.  The tops were wet and I could feel the tops of my socks getting wet, but the sole and heel were staying dry.  The heel was the part I was worried about because of the blisters.

Late in the day, the rain had stopped, but ominous clouds were all around.  I spotted a lake on the map that looked where I would end up about 7 PM and would be about eight miles from Snoqualmie pass, so it seemed like the perfect target for the day.

I had to go up and over one peak before climbing into to the lake.  On the previous downhill, my right foot started bugging me.  Coming down this last descent, it was full on hurting like shin splints.  There has been so much downhill, and I have been altering my step to protect the blisters, but apparently I have torched my right shin muscle doing so.  I manage to get to the bottom, but had to stop twice to massage it.

The last climb to the lake was pretty steep, but only a mile long.  The outlet stream crossed the trail three or four times, and at one point was a fairly large waterfall.  I finally made the lake just before 7:00 and found a spot for the hammock right in front of the lake.  It’s called mirror lake and fits it’s name perfectly.  I got a picture that is a perfect mirror image except you can see one ripple from a fish jumping.  At first I thought it ruined the picture, but the ripple is so perfect, it actually makes the picture better.

See, it’s cool with the ripple.

It’s all about me.  Today was my 50th birthday, and other than the rain, it was a good day.  I stumbled upon a cabin right at noon and stopped for lunch but it was full of hikers who made me a breakfast scramble “cake” complete with a candle to blow out.  And like a fool, I left afterwards to finish hiking in the rain.

It didn’t rain overnight and was quite chilly, but I wore another layer to bed and was warm as toast.  I woke up at 5:30 and started up the music as I slipped my clothes into the sleeping bag with me to preheat them.  Big, were they cold.  It took at least ten minutes just to warm myself back up, much less the clothes.  I finally dressed, and the preheat worked as I was not chilled at all.

I added my down layer and went back South on the trail to get water.  The spring was flowing pretty slowly, and I was collecting water it started to rain.  Great.  I ran back to the campsite to make sure nothing was getting wet and took my down jacket off and tried to sponge it off.  I got packed up quickly and headed out.

I guess today was not the best day to put on dry socks.  I tried to avoid every.piece of vegetation possible, but in under 15 minutes my socks were wet.  Oh well, I still have one last dry pair for hiking that I can save for later.  It rained on and off all morning.  It even snowed for about five minutes.

When I stopped for a snack break I checked the trail ahead and noticed that there was a cabin that I would hit about noon.  That would be a great opportunity to cook a hot lunch and save a cold one for a rainy day.  Well, a rainy day without a cabin.

I hit the cabin just before noon and it was full of people, so I set my gear out in the porch and hung a few things in nails to dry.  Two people left shortly after I arrived so there was more room to scope the place out.  They had a wood stove going full bore, there were three cots, and an upstairs loft for sleeping.  I hung yesterday’s wet socks above the stove to dry.

There were two hikers there who were taking a week off to do trail magic for other hikers, a girlfriend of one of them, and two other hikers who had been there for five days.  Yes, I said five days.  I don’t know who the other two who left were.

I began cooking some black beans and rice just as the two running the show began cooking something.  They had bacon cooking, potatoes cooking over the wood stove, then started making cornmeal flapjacks and gravy.  I had finished my lunch and was packing up to leave at 1:30 when one of them urged me to stay and eat with them.  It looked good and how could I refuse?

They cooked and cooked and at 2:30 it was finally ready.  Somehow they had found out it was my birthday so they out a tea candle on it and sang happy birthday.  It was quite nice.  And it tasted great.  Two of the other hikers had also had birthdays on the trail.  When you think about it, the normal time to hike the PCT is six months, so on average half of the hikers will have a birthday on the trail.

I asked them for one of their ginger ales to lack out for the evening and offered to contribute to the food fund, but they would not take my.money.  happy birthday to me, indeed.  I packed up again and finally headed out at 3 PM.  Alot later than I wanted, but the delay was worth it.

Once out in the cold rain, it was evident how warm and inviting the cabin was.  It would have been so easy to spend the evening there and drink whiskey all night long.  But that’s not my style and with Canada so close I don’t want to waste too much time.  Rain is inevitable in hiking and hiding from it just makes the whole trip drag on.  It’s not fun, but there are far worse things.  Things like wildfires.

Later in the afternoon the rain let up and I could see a few mountains and even saw a rainbow.  The sun peeked out at splotches around the mountains, but never shone on me.  I picked out a campsite on the map that I should be able to hit just after dark, so a little night hiking could make up some of the most time in the cabin.  I was getting hot spots on both heels, so I thought I should stop and change into the socks I dried at the cabin.  Sure enough, blisters were forming on both heels.  Three days of hiking in wet shoes will do that.  I was wishing now that I had taken my shoes off at the cabin and let both pairs of socks and feet dry.  I won’t make that mistake again.  I put bandaids on and changed socks and set off again.  It was less than five minutes before these socks were wet again, but they were slightly drier than the pair I just took off.

When I got to the campsite about twenty or thirty minutes after dark, there was already someone camping there.  No worries, I had plenty of energy and a hammock, so I would find one further on.  It took about thirty.minutes to find the ideal site with just the right size trees far enough apart and no vegetation underneath them.

I set up the hammock,.cooked dinner of parmesian noodles, drank my ginger ale, and rolled into bed.  It’s 33 miles to the next resupply point that has one hotel, a few restaurants and a brewery.  I won’t make it tommorow, but I should be able to roll in early enough Wednesday to get all my chores done quickly enough to have time to hit the brewery.  Mmm, beer.

The weather today was a little better than I expected.  It was supposed to rain most of the morning and clear up in the afternoon, but when I awoke the rain had stopped, but clouds were still making dew drops in the trees and every piece of vegetation was soaking wet until after noon.  It has been pretty cold all day, but no more rain, and I even had a few hours of honest to goodness sun.
I woke up a little late as expected and did not get.on trail until 7:15, the latest start of the entire trip.  It was not as cold as I was expecting, but it was still chilly.  I knew everything would be wet so I went ahead and suited up in the rain gear.  I had some climbs to warm me up and I got into the groove quickly.

Right from the start, the trail was enveloped in clouds and it was breezy, but not windy. By 9 am I could start to see isolated patches of clear sky, but no sun.  I could hear elk bugling at me fairly close by, perhaps 100 yds away.  It’s a very eerie sound that’s hard to imagine it comes from an animal.  By 11 am I was getting large patches of sky and actual sun.

I stopped for lunch at noon when I found a log in sunlight.  I took off my rain pants and pack cover and let them.dry in the sun while I took my shoes off and let my feet and shoes dry out a little while I ate.  Clouds kept rolling in front of the sun, so it was not a good drying session, but I was warmed and that’s what really matters.

After lunch, the trail made its way to a trailhead on the highway that leads into Rainier National Park.  A few miles from the trailhead the number of people skyrocketed.  About one mile from the trailhead I must have seen thirty people at one time on the trail.  Once at the trailhead I could see why.  There was a gigantic parking lot and overlook, and most importantly… pit toilets.  A coke machine would have been nice, but the toilets were welcomed at the moment.

The trail climbed along side the road for about a mile before shooting over the ridge line.  And as it did, it also went back into the clouds and the temperature dropped noticeably.  Late in the day I ran into a hiker coming towards me that I knew.  I had hiked with him a few days in northern California.  We both recognized each other immediately.  He had flipped up to Canada from Crater Lake and was now hiking South towards Crater Lake again.  We chatted a bit, then moved on.

I was hoping to make a campsite that would put me just short of 25 miles for the day before it got too late and too cold.  The trail lately has been quite high and exposed, and this campsite looked lower and protected.  I got there just after 7 PM and found several good places for the hammock.  Clouds were still rolling in and it was breezy, so I may get cold in the night.  I will wear my fleece just as a precaution.  I have two pairs of dry socks, but I was a bit peeved that my shoes never did dry out.  I guess it’s too cold and my feet can’t generate enough heat to warm and dry them.  I will still wear a pair of dry socks tomorrow even though they will probably get wet from the shoes fairly quickly.  Maybe I can get them dry tommorow.

As I was cooking, my pot spilled over and I had just enough water to fill it again with only one or two ounces to spare.  I will have no water for the morning, so I will have to see where the next source is.  I passed one a few tenths before the campsite, so I may have to go back there in the morning.  Theres nothing worse than having to hike backwards.  At least it’s short.

The weatherman was pretty spot on today.  It started raining just before 6 am and hasn’t stopped yet.  It’s not terribly cold, so it’s not miserable yet, but the rain is supposed to continue through tomorrow afternoon and I doubt the sun will come out to help dry things out.

I woke up just before it started raining, but since the store doesn’t open until 8 am there was no point in getting up before 7 am.  Having the tarp separate from the hammock worked out well.  I was able to get everything packed up under the protection of the tarp, get the rain gear on, then put the tarp up last.  It took longer than normal, though.  About an hour instead of 45 minutes.

I got to the store just after 8:30 and several hikers were already there.  I got the phone charging first, then got my resupply package and breakfast.  They had a pretty good croissant sandwich but the espresso machine was broken so I had to settle for regular coffee which was pretty good anyway.  

One hiker had gotten too much in her resupply box and was sick of tuna so I think I scored eight tuna packs from her.  I needed to buy two days worth of food so her tuna took care of two lunches.  I had sent myself enough dinners and snacks.  All I ended up needing to buy was one breakfast so I bought a cherry pastry.

A few of the hikers headed out in the rain about 10 am.  I was ready to go but my phone needed another hour to fully charge.  I kept snacking while waiting for the phone to charge.  Most of the hikers were taking a zero in Packwood since it was supposed to rain all day, but I wanted to make some miles today and test out the rain gear while the temperatures were not too cold yet.  It was basically like an average rainy day on the Appalachian Trail.  I’ve hiked in days like this dozens of times before.

I did not get out of the store until 11:30 and the hikers trying to hitch to Packwood were still out in the rain with no luck getting a ride.  There were plenty of cars, but no one wants to stop for a pack of wet smelly hikers.  I made my way down the road back to the trailhead and headed up the trail.

The trail had plenty of puddles to dodge and lots of riverlets flowing downhill.  It took all of thirty seconds for my socks to get soaked.  I thought these shoes had goretex in them, but they wet out so fast that I doubt there is any water protection at all.  No worries, most shoes wet out pretty quickly so I’m used to it.  One thing I was impressed with was their traction on slippery mud slopes, rocks, and roots.  I did slide a few times, but far less than with previous shoes.  I’m digging these Salomon’s.

There were a few times when the rain eased up a little bit, but it has rained pretty solidly literally all day since 6 am.  I found a thick tree that provided some protection from the rain at about 1:45 to take a break and eat a tuna packet.  I found another protected area at a campsite at about 5:00 and ate another two packets.  Other than those two stops, I was on the move the whole time without stops.  Rain tends to make you not want to stop and rest or eat.

I wanted to camp low for warmer temperatures overnight, but the last low camp was at about 5:30 so I began the long climb to Rainier National Park.  There were two camping spots up high before hitting the park that I could hit before dark.  But after climbing only about five hundred feet I noticed the clouds were getting thicker.  Great, I don’t want to be basted in cloud dew all night long.  

I kept my eyes open and saw a clearing not far away that looked to have good trees for the hammock.  I went down to the area and found a good pair of trees but one was really big.  I managed to get the tarp up, get everything underneath, then get the hammock up but still wrapped in its snake skin cover to keep it up against the tarp while I cooked dinner.  I ate quickly, then unfurled the hammock and started setting everything up inside the hammock.

Apparently the sleeping pad and bag ended up getting wet despite the pack cover.  The pad was only wet on the bottom side and the bag was only a little wet in the foot box area.  I had to hang my clothes differently than usual since they are soaking wet and I will have to put them back on in the morning and it is supposed to be just above freezing tonight.  I had to leave the rain gear hanging outside the hammock.  Tommorow morning is going to be fun.

I finally got in the hammock, I’m pretty dry, and I’m warm.  The rain is still pelting away but I should be able to sleep well.  I doubt I will rise as early as usual because of the rain and cold, but I need to get going fairly early so I can make at least 25 miles tommorow.  I only packed four days of food and it’s 98 miles from White pass to Snoqualamie.  I was able to do almost 15 today which is what I was expecting, so three 25’s will leave eight miles into town on just breakfast food.  

Maybe I can show up into a town with nothing but fumes in the food bag for a change.  I have been showing up with one or two days of food left which is too much extra weight I don’t need to carry.  Let’s put a little algebra to good use for once.

This state continues to amaze me.  I was a little worried last night about finding a spot to hang my hammock since I was above treeline, but today above treeline was orders of magnitude better than yesterday.  I felt like I was in the Sierras all over again.  The views and vistas seemed to go on for a hundred miles in every direction.

I got up at the usual 5:45 and we on the trail by 6:45 but it seemed lighter than usual because I was above treeline and there actually was more sun than usual.  The views of Mt St Helens were as good as they have ever been and in the morning sunrise they were extra special.  The views of Rainier were impressive in the sunrise as well.  And the trail keeps getting closer to it.

It was still early in the morning when I hit my first snowfield going up to the knife edge trail.  The new shoes I got for Washington worked fantastically on the snow.  It was still out of the sun and was rock hard.  I jabbed my shoes across the snow and they held like glue.  I was able to walk across the snow as fast as if it was dirt.

Once up to the knife edge trail, I looked at the lower bypass and it looked pretty scary itself.  It was on the side of a very steep slope and had a snow field across it.  I found out later from another hiker that it indeed was pretty scary to walk across.  I had already decided that I wanted to do the extra 600 ft of climbing to go up and over the knife edge.

The climb up went pretty quickly other than stopping to check for cell signal and wish Karen a happy birthday.  I had good data, but could not make calls, so email was my only option.  I was so enthralled with the scenery that I had not noticed that I passed the knife edge trail and was hiking up to the peak of Snowy Mountain.  Yikes, I was high.  But the view was incredible.  I could see all of Ranier and St Helens and could even see Mt Baker off in the distance.

I scrambled off of Snowy and back to the knife edge trail.  Once across knife edge, the descent back down to the bypass trail was steep and slippery.  The talus just gave way under your feet at nearly every step.  It was like a rock glissade.  The trail afterwards was quite sketchy as well.  It was very narrow, very steep on either side, and had small landslides all over the place.  There were road apples all over the place.  I was amazed that people were actually brave enough to bring horses up here.  I never would.  In the picture, you can see the trail snaking up the next ridge heading towards Mt Rainier.

Eventually, the trail turned off the ridges and headed east down to the valley below.  Seeing the snowfields high above was just as impressive as seeing them from above looking down at them.  I filled up with water at the first chance in the valley and hiked until noon to stop for lunch.  At noon I had gone only eight miles instead of the usual twelve to fourteen.  I had taken so much time on knife edge (two hours) and stopping to take pictures that I was way low on mileage but every minute of delay was worth it.

After lunch, the trail was much more familiar trees and woods for most of the afternoon until we had to climb another pass to get to the next valley.  It was above treeline for about an hour and had good views of Rainier.  The last six miles were downhill through forest to get to White pass where my next resupply box is waiting.

I got to the pass trailhead parking at 6:30 and there was a trail angel set up cooking burgers and handing out beers.  Rainier beers.  I had to stop, of course, and discovered that the store closed at 6 PM so there was no use in going any further.  I will have to wait until morning to get my box and it will probably be raining by then.  

The forecast shows rain from tonight until midday two days from now.  Tommorow will be crappy and forty degrees all day long.  I had toyed with the idea of hitching into Packwood and taking a zero tomorrow.  Depending on how miserable tomorrow actually is will determine if I hole up or just head out after resupplying.  One inch of Washington rain in mid September.  How bad could it actually be?

Perfect weather again today with a brisk morning and afternoon sun warming things up then cooling off again before dark.  The terrain was a mix of up and down, but nothing big and nothing steep.  I should now be within easy striking distance of my next resupply.

I woke up just after 5 am this morning and was about to start up my music when a headlight started shining in on me from the trail.  I’m not sure if it was a hiker or a hunter, but they were obviously intrigued by my hammock because they kept shining on me the whole time.  If it was a hiker, they were southbound and an eager beaver.  I applaud their initiative to get in the miles early.

I listened to music until nearly 6 am and was able to get packed up and out at 6:30.  I drank a little of my coffee and ate a poptart to start the morning.  It was cold enough to need my warm hat but I didn’t need the warm gloves or a jacket.  The first five miles were in thick woods blanketed in huckleberry bushes.

Late in the morning, more meadows and lakes started appearing.  The trail most of the day was on the side slopes and was only level in the meadow and lake areas before it would turn to side slopes again.  Where I stopped for lunch was a campsite where most of the ground was pretty sloped.  I had a good log to sit on and level ground to cook, so that’s all that mattered.

Early in the afternoon I entered the Goat Rocks Wilderness whete you can supposedly see mountain goats most of the time.  I did not see any, and I was keeping an eye out for them.  As the trail exited the wilderness it entered the Yakima reservation and immediately turned to big sky trail again.  It thought I was back in Sonora pass.  It was beautiful, but had me nervous because it was all above treeline and it was getting late enough that I needed to find a campsite, but a hammock above treeline can be problematic.  I had also run out of water and needed at least a liter just to camp.

I got lucky, because after the pass that exited the reservation was still above treeline, but had several snowmelt streams and the guide said two campsites were near by.  All of the streams I passed had no trees so I kept going to the next one hoping it would have at least one tree I could hang the water bag to let the gravity filter do its work without me having to hold it up for fifteen minutes.  The last stream before the campsites had a good sized waterfall and a perfect tree, so I loaded up two liters for camp.

The campsite was less than a quarter mile after the waterfall and I was able to find two perfect trees for the hammock.  There were some weekend hikers already set up there so we chatted a bit.  I set up quickly, ate a good dinner, and bedded down for the night.  

Just in case you were wondering, Starkist light tuna in sunflower oil is the best.  I could eat another one right now.  I never would have imagined I would still be this in love with tuna packets, but I am.  And also, ghee in mashed potatoes rocks the cookpot pretty hard.  I might have to listen to AC/DC tonight.  That’s how hard the ghee rocks.

Leaving town is always rough, especially when there’s a seven mile long climb waiting for you.  In fact, it seemed like all day long was climbing and very little descending.  I had a hard time keeping my energy.up, but I had fun stopping alot and checking out My Adams, which we circled all day long.  And now Mt Rainier is coming into view.

I had breakfast with the local gentlemen’s gossip club and had a good time.  I learned all about huckleberries and elk and discovered that the one that bugled at me yesterday was definitely a bull elk.  They asked alot of questions about the trail and equipment and we of course had to talk quite a bit about the weather.  They said it was a tad cold for this time of year and the farmers almanac had predicted an early winter this year.  Great, now I really want to make tracks to finish before October.

Eddy showed up right at 7:30 like he said he would to have a hot chocolate.  I had two eggs, hash browns, bacon, the toast, corned beef hash, and coffee.  I was hungry.  I ran to the store to grab my pack and let the store owner know I was out.  The guy I shared a room with was looking for a ride so I asked Eddy if he had room for another and he did, so the three of us headed up the mountain.

We got to the trailhead just before nine and immediately the trail started a gentle climb.  I had not bothered to look at the trail ahead, by I stopped after about an hour and saw that it was seven miles of incline.  I had forgotten to fill my water bottles, but it was cool out so I didn’t need much anyway.  I had about a half of a liter.

The trail started out in tall pines, then gave way to huckleberries.  I was still full, but of course I had to stop and pick some.  They really do look like dark blueberries.  The trail then turned to a burn area and stayed that way for about ten miles.  The only plus was that it was easier to see Mt Adams, which we were climbing up the southwest side and would circle the beast before leaving it’s Northwest side.

I stopped for lunch after 1 PM at an overlook in a burn area where I could see Adams, Rainier, and St Helens all at the same time.  I sat and faced Rainier while I cooked and ate.

After lunch, the trail started to descend some, but I still could not get moving.  I must not have gotten enough sleep last night, because I had plenty of food.  Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

I passed a few hikers and hunters throughout the day.  Everyone was nice and I stopped to talk to all of them.  A couple late in the day took my picture in front of Mt Adams.  They make three day trips where they hike in day one, day hike the second day, then hike out on the third.  You could tell they love this area.

I hiked until 7:15 so I could descend and get as low as possible and be near water.  Where I camped there were alot of blueberry bushes, but no blueberries.  I ended up cooking dinner in the dark, then headed straight to bed.  I need some Z’s tonight.  I’m 46 miles from my next stop and want to be sure I get there while it’s still daylight.  That should be easily doable.

Another good day today.  I was able to get up and on the trail by 6:45, the weather was cool but not cold all day, and I was able to hit the road to Trout Lake by 5:30 and got a ride after only fifteen minutes.  The belly is full, the food bag is full, and I got to sleep in a bed and take a bath and wash clothes.  Food bath and laundry is the true triple crown of hiking.  A bed is just gravy.

Three other hikers were camping by the lake with me but none of them were awake yet when I set off in the morning.  The voltaren gel did not work the same wonders this morning as previous mornings, and I had a tiny bit of hiker hobble that went away in five minutes.  I guess the shorter days the last few days were a contributing factor to me feeling better the last few days.  No worries, it’s better than before so I’ll keep using it.

The terrain had a few ups and downs in the morning and I passed by several more lakes in the Indian Heaven area.  This was a nice area, but nothing special.  Most of it was in thick trees but there were some open meadows, a few streams, and some good views of Mt Adams when the trail was high.

When I stopped for lunch at a campsite right at noon, I had done 14.5 miles.  That’s fantastic considering the starting time.  The terrain had been very favorable and I had made coffee with honey in it in the morning and put too much honey in it.  I only drank less than half of it in the morning and it fueled me the whole way.  I was walking briskly all morning, even on the uphills.  They were graded well enough that it did not slow me down much and did not tire me out.  Lunch was ramen noodles and  Cheetos, two of my favorites.  I finished off the last of my freeze dried mangoes and dehydrated mandarins, too.

The afternoon left me with just about ten miles to town. It would be a big climb, a big downhill, then another big climb, and then a small downhill.  Should be cake.

The first climb was very moderate and the reward was a great view of Mt Adams.  We are hiking straight towards it now and it gets bigger each day.  You can see now that it’s multiple kinds of rock under the snow.  The downhill was cake, too.  The grades here in Washington have been quite gentle so far.

The last climb was a little steeper than the others, though.  It wasn’t bad, but I did slow down a little.  I met some southbounders on the way up and they gave me the skinny.on town.  I kept on pushing and tried my.phone at the top of the climb, just two miles from the road, but had no cell service.  The other hikers had given me the list of trail angels and recommended that I try to call one from there to arrange a ride because the road has little traffic.  I tried every half mile all the way to the road, but no service.  Great.

When I got to the road, i saw a truck going the wrong way had slowed, then kept.moving.  I set my pack by the road and went to sit on a log to write down the names and numbers of the angels on paper from the photo I had taken of the southbounders photo of the list.  A car came by, so I jumped up and stuck out my thumb, but no luck.  Oh well, back to writing.  I finished about a dozen numbers and decided I would start walking until I got cell signal.  I was getting one bar occasionally and could tell if I went down the road a short ways around the mountain that the signal would improve.  Just as I was about to hoist my pack on my back, the same truck that had slowed, came back and stopped when I stuck my thumb out.  Success.

My ride was Eddie who used to log this area, but was now retired.  He had decided to just take a drive up the mountain to look at the woods.  Lucky for me.  We talked as we went into town and as we got to the store, he gave me his card and said.to call him if I had trouble getting a ride.out of town.  On his card, it said he was a.livestock dealer.  Looks like we had more talking to do.  He said he is usually at the café at 7:30 in the morning, so I am hoping to catch him there to get a ride back up.  And people don’t believe in miracles….

Once at the store, my luck continued.  Both of the rooms they had for rent were open and there was another hiker there inquiring as well.  So we split the room with three beds and paid $12.50 each for a bed, bath, and access to laundry.  Score.

I ran to the café, and had a Vulture burger, a huckleberry lemonade, salad, and huckleberry pie with huckleberry ice cream.  Heaven.  I ran back to the store, got my.package, bought two beers and a bag of cheetos and went to the room to get a bath.  The other guy had gotten some dvd’s to watch and we watched The Martian and Hunger Games while we did chores and in-between laundry.  There is no cell service in town, but they have wifi, so emails were read and sent.  Everyone in this town is so friendly, it’s been one of the better stops so far.

I actually overslept this morning, but got out by 6:45 and hiked right up until il 7 PM.  There was alot of climbing, but it was not so steep as to bother my heel.  And even though the morning started out chilly, I swear the temperature never changed all day long.

The ridge above the river where I camped turned out to be a nice camping spot.  There was no wind, no dew, and the temperatures were not too cold.  I slept quite well and didn’t wake up until just after 6 am so I had to skip the morning music and get right to work.

After getting down off the ridge where I was camped, the trail was level for a few miles as it crossed two different rivers in a valley.  I stopped at the second one to fill up on water.  There was dew on the grass and it got my legs wet as I walked through it.  This is probably the first time.on this trip so far I have gotten wet from dew on plants along the trail.  I understand this is common in Washington.  It reminded me of hiking on the AT with the meadow, the climbs, the grasses, and the streams.  So far I really dig Washington.

At the top of the climbs, there were good views of whatever volcano I was facing, either Hood or Adams.  I did not see Ranier or St Helens today.  Perhaps tomorrow.  I was surprised how far I was able to go today.  I forgot I had honey with me, so I added honey to my cold coffee and I ate well today.  I guess if you stoke the engine properly you can motor on quickly.  My feet are pretty sore after a long day, though.  I hope I am not too sore tomorrow since today was such a big jump in mileage.  I had no idea I had gone that far until after I stopped to camp.

Yesterday I saw no northbounders and four southbounders.  Today I saw no southbounders and five northbounders.  I may not be out of a bubble after all.  

I have 23.6 miles to the forest service road that leads to Trout Lake, where my next resupply is.  It’s an 11 mile hitch so if I get there late in the day it might be a difficult hitch into town and might be an even tougher hitch back out.  I may have to make tomorrow a short day just to deal with the logistics of getting into and out of town.

Today was the first full day after returning to the trail and it felt good to be back in full swing again.  The three shorter days leading up to today worked out all the kinks and the muscle pains went away today.  The feet even felt pretty decent.  Most of the day was spent climbing up and down in the coolness of an overcast day.

I woke up about 5:00 and listened to music until 5:45, then I rolled out of the hammock, ate my breakfast burrito, and headed out at 6:30.  Yesterday had been so hot and lasted well after dark.  I slept on top of the sleeping bag until about 3 am when I was finally cold enough to get inside the bag.

The coolness accelerated in the morning.  It was probably about 65 when I set out from the campsite, but within an hour of climbing, it was probably closer to 45 degrees.  It was very overcast and even though I was not in the clouds or fog, I was right even with them.  Even wearing gloves, my.hands were cold.  The heat generated from climbing kept me.from getting too cold, but several times I almost.put my rain jacket on just for the warmth.  What a stark difference from yesterday.

All day I kept bouncing between 1000 and 4000 feet.  The climbing was a little painful on my left Achilles heel if the grade was a bit steep.  I could walk on my toes without pain, but the extra flexion if the ground slopes up more than about ten degrees would cause pain.  I found two ways to mitigate the pain.  If I could find a rock to land my heel on as I stepped to level out my foot, that would be pain free.  If no rock was at the right spot to step on, I could step sideways to shallow the angle.  Pointing my toe either left or right seemed to work equally well.

Another odd thing going on today was having my phone reboot itself while it was in my pocket.  It has done it five.or six times during the trip and did it a few times yesterday, but today it rebooted five or six times in an hour.  It seems to take a bit of juice to do a reboot, so the most worrisome part about it doing this is the extra consumption of power.  By the end of the day, it had used 50% power where it would normally be 20-25% for a day.  I took it out of its bumper case to see if that was interfering with the power button.  That seemed to work for a while, but then it started rebooting again.  I could see that the bottom side of the power button was depressed when it rebooted, so it is definitely sticking on the bottom side.  When I stopped for lunch, I cut the bottom half of the bumper button out so that it can only depress the top half and will.protect the bottom half.  That seemed to work well, but it did reboot once near the end of the day.  If I can find a pencil, I’ll try to grind some graphite on the switch.  I may also have to stop keeping it in my.pocket just to protect it.

The scenery all day was pretty good.  The view in the picture is.looking back at the Columbia river towards Mt Hood.  I was still able to receive cell signal from the river gorge, too.  The clouds lasted most of the day but did seem to break about 4 or 5 PM.  It never did actually rain, but some of the trees were dropping dew from the clouds.

The combination of thick green forest, moderate uphill and downhill grades and very little level terrain, coupled with all of the views being of rolling forest and the threat of rain all day made me think of the Appalachian Trail.  Aside from the actual species of plants and trees, you would have a hard time telling if I was hiking the PCT or AT today.

Even though I only hiked 23 miles today, I consider it a good day of hiking.  I would have preferred to hike 25, but the morning went so slowly stopping alot and messing with the phone far more than I wanted to.  I hiked until 7:15 so it was a pretty full day.  That’s about as late as I can hike and still have enough light to set up the hammock, but I’m cooking and eating in the dark.  I can probably start fifteen minutes earlier but the days are sure getting shorter much faster than I would like.  I need to knock out miles to make Canada before the snow sets in.