Day 78: sucked in

August 21
zero

I get up early with every intention of getting back on the trail today. But as soon as I get down off my bunk I reconsider. My knee. My dumb knee just seems to be getting worse. It doesn't take much for Borealis to convince me to take a zero, grab breakfast with him, and then head over to the next town and go to the grocery store. I'm hoping to find a knee brace, and decide to upgrade my lunches from ramen to hiker trash burritos.

We get a ride into Goldbar (a town 13 miles away, but with an actual grocery store), from a mother and daughter who know the Dinsmores from way back, and are used to picking up hiker trash. On the way we stop at a roadside coffee stall, apparently famous for being in Harry and the Hendersons. I take pictures.

We resupply in Goldbar, I check in with my people, get caught up on some news, and then head back to the Hiker barn. I don't find a knee brace, so I settle for some icy/hot cream and an ace wrap.
More hikers meet us when we get back: Yetti Boy and Sugarbabe (a french couple), Bigfoot, Juicy, Darren and a few older guys who are odd, but interesting.

There is a TV and a bin with lots of movies, and people put them in one after another. It's almost as if no one has watched a moving picture screen in months! ;) In the evening, Jerry Dinsmore drives a group of us over to Skykomish (20 minutes away) so we can get fried chicken dinners at the bar.  Jerry is a great guy, and I sit up in the cab with him chatting about his life, while Darren, Juicy, Bigfoot and Boots sit in the truck bed.
We are the envy of all the other hikers when we return with our fried chicken and jojos, and I share some pieces with Why Not (an older woman I met back in Oregon) and Borealis, since it's too much for me to eat. We all stay up chatting and watching movies, greasy and full from our dinners.

Over the course of the day I have decided that I won't be able to finish the rest of the 190 miles to Canada, the way my knee is. The last section before Canada is from Stehekin north 90 miles. The 100 miles leading up to Stehekin are widely reported to be some of the most difficult on the trail. I make the sad decision to go up to Stehekin and finish my section from there, feeling slightly like I've failed Washington.  I try to be optimistic and grateful, and make reassuring promises to myself like "you'll come back and hike the whole PCT one day," or "you'll at least be able to section Washington in the future," but these are half-hearted attempts at self placating.  It is what it is, I tell myself. It is what it is.