27 miles
I wake up early, wanting to be on the trail and get some miles in before the other hikers wake up and catch up to me. We had all planned on camping at the same lake tonight--27 miles away for me, 30 for them. I'm on the trail a little before 7am, feeling a bit stiff and sore, noticing my left knee is slightly swollen. I take some ibuprofen and get on my way.
The day starts off clear and lovely--The mountains, the lakes! How did I get so lucky?
Jonny Rocket catches up to me 3 miles into my day, zooming up the trail like it's the easiest thing in the world. He makes a joke about me being up so early, and I tell him I'm trying to be a "real" hiker these days. We chat for a bit, me picking up my pace to stay within earshot of him, but then realizing the futility of this, I watch him grow smaller and smaller ahead of me. I miss Barrel.
A few miles later, as I'm stretching out my knees after a section of descending trail, Salty flies by me. She is probably one of the fastest female hikers I have met on trail--easily out hiking many of our male counterparts. She asks if I'm okay, and I tell her it's just some knee pain. She commiserates, and tells me she's been having knee problems too, but then walks so fast up the trail it's like I can see a trail of smoke behind her. Alone once more.
I have been anticipating a particular river crossing all morning, and the signs I see leading up to it, aren't particularly reassuring. I met some SOBOs earlier, and they said it was no problem, but I am no fan of fording rivers.
I come down the steep trail leading up to the river, and see Salty just as she's making her way to the other side. There are two hikers behind her who opt to walk through the river, instead of crossing on the makeshift log bridge, and I notice that the water only comes up to their knees. When I get down to the logs and test them out, they are slightly bouncy and unstable. It's only about a 15ft long cross over the logs, but I know I would slip off the logs, so I decide to just walk through the water. As I'm changing into my sandals, Knief and Maniac catch up to me. Knief quickly crosses the logs, but Maniac decides to also walk across. The water goes up past my knees, and the current is strong. I jokingly ask them to try and save me if I get pulled down the river, but for all of that, we easily make it across.
The guys decide to eat lunch after we cross, and I make my lunch with them, enjoying the company and letting my feet dry. It's about 16 more miles until the lake, and so far I'm making pretty good time. I plan to be there around 7pm.
The guys easily pull ahead of me when we finish lunch, but I don't even make an effort to keep up with them. My left knee has started to throb, and I worry that maybe I did something to it when I fell yesterday. It doesn't help that there are lots of logs down in this section, slowing me down even more.
Notice the size of this downed section covering the trail--my trekking poles are in the picture for reference
I am going slow, and by 5pm, British Will catches up to me, and we take a break and chat for a bit. I haven't seen him since Sierra City, and he recently shaved his beard, making him look handsome, but even younger than his 24 years. I try to keep up with him for a bit when we resume hiking, but my knee just isn't cooperating. I ask him to save me a spot by the lake.
The trail climbs up a couple thousand feet, and the higher we get, the denser the cloud cover becomes, until we are right up in the clouds. I can hear thunder, and desperately want to make it to the lake before it starts raining. It's a long way down the other side of the mountain, and by this time I'm limping. I can barely put weight on my left leg, and stop over few minutes to rest. Going downhill seems to be the worst, and hobble-hopping this last section takes 10 times as long. I keep walking, wanting to make it to the lake, but I'm still a mile away and darkness is starting to creep in. The trail is rocky and uneven, and I know it's a bid idea to continue on. I find a place to camp only about .8 mile away from the lake campsite, and decide to call it quits for the night. So close, but so far.
Tomorrow is an 8 mile day into Stevens pass, and a hitch from there into Baring, WA where the trail angels (the Dinsmores) are. Maniac has a cabin up at stevens pass that the other hikers are staying at, and they've given me an invitation, but I declined, not wanting to take a zero as I'm on a tight schedule to finish. Hoping this knee thing goes away soon.
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