22 miles
I don't want to wake up. I am having such conflicting feelings about finishing, that it's hard to even get up and go. I keep wishing Barrel was with me, for that added motivation, but then I tell myself that's a copout. I started this trail on my own, to be on my own, and that's how I'm going to finish. So I start my morning routine. Stuff my sleeping bag down at the bottom of my pack. Fold up my sleeping pad. Change into my hiking clothes. Boil water. Sort my food for the day. Eat some candy. Eat my oatmeal. Brake down my tent. Pack everything on my back. Walk.
I love/hate this routine.
I am slow. Partly because of my knee, partly because I just want to be slow. I take a break for a snack around 10 and Safety passes me. He tells me he stopped a few miles earlier than I did last night, and is surprised that he caught up to me. I'm surprised he didn't catch me sooner. Not long after that I pass him as he's eating lunch. And then, what I have been expecting ever since entering Washington, the rain starts.
I'm a couple of miles from Rainy Pass, which I find just so cliche. I put on my rain gear, and scoot against a wide tree, which seems to be keeping everything underneath it relatively dry.
I make a hiker trash burrito and dip it in my newly obtained apple sauce. I am loving lunch.
And here comes Safety. He passes me, and this is the 5th time I'm sure I'll never see him again. All these goodbyes are starting to get awkward.
The rain lasts less than an hour, but leaves the ground mucky and puddled. Steam wafts up from the forest, and I am amused by all the steaming logs that create this cloud smoke. Sometimes the forest is so beautiful I wonder why I want to go back to the city.
This is the Washington section of messed up bridges and log crossings. I hate walking across logs to cross a stream. I've never slipped off, but the thought crosses my mind every time. I realize there are a lot of things I hate doing on this trail, but as scared as they make me, I would do every single one of them again. This might be the definition of crazy.
Because I get to see all of this:
I'm not making very good time, and I have forgotten that the days are slowly shortening. I am at the top of a crest, 3 miles away from water, with almost nothing left in my water bottle, and I realize I'm not going to make it before it gets dark. This wouldn't be so much of an issue if the terrain right now wasn't steep, rocky and dangerous. I start to panic a bit, and pick up my pace. I know I'm going to have to go without water for a meal tonight, but I'm more concerned with finding a flat place to set up my tent.
I come to a flat area, in the midst of some trees, on a rocky mountain ridge. There is only one spot cleared for a tent, and a small tent is already set up. So I move on, debating whether or not to try to make my way down the mountain as fast as I can before it's pitch black, or to clear my own area in the trees. I walk a bit further, realize there are going to be no other areas to pitch a tent, and then turn around and hurry back. I whack through the trees, find a place that is only slightly angled, and quickly set up my tent in the unbelievably quickly fading light. I've never actually had to set up my tent in the dark, but tonight I do, and am relieved that I've done this enough times over the last few months, that I don't actually need much light. It is a cold night, and I can see my breath in the light of my headlamp. I start to wonder if the tent I saw a little way back might be Safety, and maybe he might have some extra water I can borrow. I figure even if it's not him, it doesn't hurt to ask.
I whack my way back through the trees, crouch down by the tent, and say "Safety?"
"Pip, is that you? I thought you'd be long gone by now! Were you the one making all that racket through the trees?"
I laugh and say probably, because I didn't realize I was going to have to camp here. I tell him I stupidly ran out of water, thinking I was going to be camping near the next water source tonight, and wondering if I could borrow just a bit for cooking. He says he has more than enough, and sets out an entire liter, telling me to take as much as I want. Thank god for nice hikers.
I make a delicious meal, complete with hot chocolate, and try to stay warm in the cold wind.
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