Day 144: Mile 2290.6 - 2301.9
I woke late this morning, partially because I was up late writing (but got all but one day of Oregon done, so I'm going to say it was worth it), and partially because I knew it was a short day in to White Pass. And so, even as I was packing up, I could hear--and then see--folks out of the Big Group passing me by. Their original plan had been to get into White Pass last night, then spend the entirety of today relaxing, but I think Goat Rocks upset those, albeit in the best way possible. So they were instead headed in as early as possible today, to relax as much as possible--I think they had rented a cabin somewhere in town--and would head out tomorrow.
I, on the other hand, had a different idea. And perhaps here's a good place to describe my Washington strategy a bit.
So far in Washington the weather has been extraordinarily good: sometimes cold at night, but always warm, if not sometimes hot, during the day. And while the weather's been good, my idea has been to hike hike hike and get in as many miles as possible. Among other things, that means very few zeros: I didn't take one at Trout Lake--just in one day, sleep overnight, then head out the next morning. And for White Pass the strategy is even faster: arrive in the morning, resupply, charge batteries (very important), then leave in the afternoon and get some more miles before nightfall. The next stop is Snoqualamie, and even there, if the weather is good, and the batteries are sufficiently energized, then that may also end up being a grab-and-go rather than a zero. In fact, in an ideal world, my first zero in Washington would be at Stevens Pass, where I can either go left into the town of Skykomish, or right into the town of Leavenworth.
And the big determining factor in all this is the weather. Because it *is*, to my mind, a race at this point, only I'm racing to get as many miles as I can under blue skies and warm temperatures. Eventually the weather will turn--in fact, it's forecasted to rain tomorrow night so the good times may be over pretty soon!--but until then, I'm pushing for miles under the sun. And I remember, when I first bumped into Otter again at Sheep Lake, we had talked a bit about the schedule, and he had concluded that if he does 15 miles a day he'll get to Canada on 1 October, and if he does 20 miles a day he'll get to Canada on 1 October. And he can tell you which daily mileage is more comfortable! And partially this is due to the quantization of towns on the trail--the fixed-point-in-space problem, as I call it--but partially it's due to the fact that tasks tend to expand to consume all available time. But for my part, I'm trying to break this little adage: I'm trying to push for extra miles to shave off a day or two from Canada. Because I figure that'll give me the best chance of avoiding the rain: either I arrive before it does (highly unlikely, especially up near the border) or at least the rainy days will still be Rare and have yet to move to Uncommon (a little CCG terminology, for those who don't know).
So that's the plan: hit Snoqualamie (about 100 miles from White Pass), assess, possibly go through and hit Stevens Pass (another 70 miles or so), assess. Washington looks like it will be much more ad hoc, but luckily I learned the art of getting in, grabbing what's needed, and going, from Double Snacks
As for the hiking today, I had done the hill yesterday so the hike into town today would be all downhill, which it mostly was. As I went, I got enticed by a view of Rainier, overlooking a cauldron of clouds churning up through the valley below, bubbling over the lips of the ridges, but that view was always blocked by trees, so I had to piece it together in my head. The downhill went pretty quick, then the trail hit Highway 12, where I took a left and did a quick, maybe half mile, jaunt to the Kracker Barrel. The Kracker Barrel, by the way, was pretty nice. The staff was very nice, and--in a similar story to Trout Lake--I could have resupplied out of the local store. But instead I had asked Ian to send boxes, which I got, and he was most generous (and I had been most vague in describing what I wanted) so there was so much food! But the hiker box at the Kracker Barrel is pretty good--it's even labeled with different categories so it's all organized--and I ended up leaving a lot there. But it'll get picked up: there are hikers who will take even unmarked Ziplocs of dried stuff from the hiker boxes and try them out, mostly I think to save on cost (although maybe they're just that adventurous). I spent some time at the Kracker Barrel mostly to charge my battery and phone, and then headed out (albeit later than I had wanted) and continued north. As is the trend with the PCT, you go downhill to go into town, but then have to go uphill to get out, and that was true this time too, and with a heavy bag filled with 5 days of food! But I did manage to get a few miles in, about 6, before making camp. All the hiking today was through the woods, so more trees and green tunnel, which made it easier to put my head down and hike. Although after the Kracker Barrel, the woods did start having lots of little ponds everywhere. I'm told this is pretty--I don't quite see the fascination with ponds yet, I just see mosquitos!--but I admit some of the larger ones, which actually break up the woods and impose their own broad spaces, with open views of the sky, those were pretty nice.
And that was the hike!
-- Campsite > White Pass (Highway 12) > Kracker Barrel > White Pass > Beusch Lake
-- The Kracker Barrel really is very nice. They have plastic picnic tables set up outside where the hikers congregate and can spread out and sort out resupply (as I did). They have tables inside where you can sit and watch your devices slowly blink their 3 lights, while you desperately hope that they advance to blinking 4. And they have showers--nice showers! The showers are in another building, but they are basically small private bathrooms and surprisingly luxurious. Shampoo and conditioner in the shower, and they give you a towel (although they were out when I was there, so I just got two hand towels to dry off with). There's a code to get in the door which they're quite strict about (evidently hikers had been sharing the code), but once you start you get 30 minutes to walk the less-than-5 minutes to the shower, shower, and walk back. Costs $5. By far the best paid-for shower I've had on trail so far!
-- They also have laundry: $10 and it takes about an hour. There's only one machine so there's ostensibly a queue, but Poppy did it and it went pretty smoothly for her. I had done laundry in Trout Lake only a few days ago so didn't feel the need. Although, I'm also not smelling myself, so maybe I'm not the best person to assess the Need!
-- In addition to the normal, physical chores of shower and resupply and etc, there are also electronic chores, like getting the most up-to-date weather forecasts, and checking fire closures. For the latter, I checked the PCTA website and saw that, basically, California is now closed. The federal government basically closed all national forests until mid-September, as a precaution against forest fires. Which means all those SOBOs, who were once so concerned about skipping the growing Dixie Fire and how to navigate northern California, well, they don't have to be so concerned now, because their hike is over. And I remember Dylan once commenting that he thought that SOBO was no longer a viable option for the PCT, that the fires would make it impossible, and I said, no, that's not true. I mean there are fires but it's not like the whole state is on fire. But here we are: even if the whole state isn't on fire, the fires--or rather, the threat of fires--have made it impossible. It's sad, really, and I feel bad for the SOBOs. Not only is their hike over, but they also miss some of what I enjoyed most so far: the desert!
-- And there's a comment that I remember from Spielberg, who was (again) reading the tea leaves of the PCTA. And he noted how they had gone from encouraging thru-hiking of the trail, to encouraging a continuous footpath (since bits and pieces of the trail get closed for years due to fire), to now (the rumor is) when they'll be encouraging section hiking. And perhaps that's the fate of these sorts of long trails, at least on the west coast in California: with the increased fires, it just becomes impractical to imagine doing the whole thing, step-by-every-plotted-step, within a season. And in future, they just might become multi-year endeavours.
-- There were plenty of people at the Kracker Barrel. First, there was the Big Group, which arrived well ahead of me, and then left to go to the cabin. And then there were Poppy and Biergarten, who are basically hiking together, and had also arrived ahead of me. Biergarten headed out earlier, but Poppy had the same problem as me--slow charging--and headed out only a little bit before me. She's fast, though, so she's ahead and will stay ahead at least through Snoqualamie. And then there were the unexpected hikers.
-- By which I mean J-Pro, who I saw coming around the corner of the Kracker Barrel, and who I hadn't seen since Wrightwood! And he recognized me and we got to talking. He had arrived at the Kracker Barrel two days ago and had zeroed there, mostly because it was nice: the food was relatively cheap, the camping out back was free, the WiFi was good. But we got to comparing notes and it's strange to hear how two hikes, on the same trail, in the same year, at roughly the same time, can nonetheless be so different. For example, at Crabtree Meadows--the base camp before summiting Whitney--the temperature that morning had sunk to 18 degrees Fahrenheit for him! 18 degrees! I've never seen that sort of cold on trail! And coming out of the Sierras, the mosquitos had been so bad that he fast-walked, near jogged, the last 30 miles to Sonora Pass in a day, whereas I took maybe 2 days? And didn't notice that much with the mosquitos--a bit at the last campsite before Dorothy Lake, but that was between my inner tent and rain fly at night--so just a week and the mosquitos had gone. And even recently, at Goat Rocks: he had gone through only a few days before, and had contended with smoke and cloud all day (although he had taken the alternate up to the summit of Old Snowy, and gotten a beautiful shot of the sunlight streaming over the smoke/cloud layer below--amazingly beautiful). Even last night: he had camped behind the Kracker Barrel and woke to condensation in his tent, hence his delayed start today--he was waiting for his tent to dry--whereas I had no thought even of condensation last night. So two hikers that were in the same place at Wrightwood, then got separated (J-Pro is much faster than me) so were maybe a week+ apart up to the Dixie Fire (he had gotten through to Belden and started north from there before getting evacuated), became maybe a few days apart after that (he hiked out of Etna just before the fires started there, as did Double Snacks and me), nonetheless saw a very different trail. J-Pro is more of a crush-miles then take-a-zero style of hiker, so while we ended up heading out of the Kracker Barrel together, he promptly sped ahead, and I would meet up with him only later, at the campsite. He'll push on ahead tomorrow most likely, and get to Snoqualamie well ahead of me--he noted that, if push came to shove, you could do 30-mile days and finish in 11-12 days; I replied that I can't even do one 30-mile day, let alone a bunch in succession!--but it was good to see him again. And to easily fall into old, comfortable patterns.
-- Oh, J-Pro had an update on Gazelle, who I had last seen in person back on the Aqueduct. Evidently Gazelle finished the trail recently--he's chilling in Seattle right now--but J-Pro had last seen Gazelle in person at Kennedy Meadows South, where he ended up camping pretty much next to Gazelle's tent at Grumpy Bears (the *other* place to camp at Kennedy Meadows South--I camped at the General Store instead). And Gazelle had come back one night a bit inebriated, walked right up to his tent, then started looking around, doing the 360, saying where is my home, where is my home? And J-Pro couldn't stop laughing, because his home was about 5 feet in front of him!
-- Camping cohort: J-Pro, Apocalypse, both of whom are engineers. And there was some camp-talk in the evening, at which we discovered that all of us are engineers, none of us were interested in doing the AT (too much rain), and all of us really liked the desert. Hmm, is there some strange appeal between the engineering mind and the elegant openness and plainness of the desert? Because I remember that, back home, Dan Chikami also loves the desert...
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