Just going for a walk

And today was Getaway Day. Because today the rains were supposed to start, and tomorrow, the snows. When people would ask when I was going to finish, I would always say by October 1st. The reason? To beat the snows. So got to get out before the snows hit! In the morning, the weather did start to turn, although more in feeling than in view. Which is to say, I woke to blue and sunny skies, but the sun didn't feel as warm, and the wind felt colder and more biting. And to the south, the clouds were gathering, one even dropping a formation that looked suspiciously like a thunderhead.  But in the morning, the turn hadn't come quite yet, and as started, hiking the dip between Woody Pass and Rock Pass, I thought: is that what I had hiked? Two nights ago I had been here at dusk and later, and while the skies had been turning from blue to purple to night black, the slopes had been but gray and drab. But now, cast in the morning haze of light still waking, I saw that these slopes were in ...

And today was Terminus Day! So the idea for Terminus Day is to slack-pack it: declare this place to be base camp, leave the tent set up, and just carry what you need for a day-hike to the terminus and back. Which is an interesting exercise: it's a measure of your paranoia. Be paranoid enough and you'll end up packing your entire bag because it's a long way--the terminus is 11.3 miles from my base camp, meaning a 22.6 mile day, which is long (for me)--so maybe you won't be able to make it back to base camp and will need to camp in the middle. Well, then you're bringing everything! Me, I was able to trim it down. Medical kit, my just-in-case camera electronics bag (memory cards and spare battery), keyboard (luxury item!), an extra layer (just my hoodie, no puffy), tripod set up (of course--for the terminus shot!). Then the essentials: rain gear (functions as a windbreaker too), poop kit, water kit. And finally, food: I brought along a bunch of snacks, mostly hoping to...

And I woke to brilliant sunlight filtering through yellow conifers, and I packed up faster than ever--might I, at the very end, finally figured out how to do this?--gathered water at the nearby creek with a startling efficiency, even dropped by the camp of the gaggle to say good morning, and headed out. All quick and clean and starting to think, yes, maybe I *have* figured out how to do this. And then at one of the turns I clear my sinuses as I do every morning, and promptly blow a snot rocket straight onto my pants. Nope!--still don't got it! But today, trail-wise was beautiful. There was a green tunnel section in the middle of the day--saved me, actually, because without it I doubt I would have made miles, instead would have spent the day stopping every few steps to gawk with the camera. But the other spots! The morning on the ridges under Tatie Peak, gazing out at the slopes and peaks just across the vale as you negotiate a shelf trail. And then the trail turning from eastward t...

And I woke to mists swirling around the tops of the trees, but I could see behind them, and behind them was blue, so while it may have been cold, I knew that it was not a problem: this would eventually burn off. Instead, what *was* a problem was the scuttlebutt around camp which was about, of course, the weather. Seems the most current weather report calls for heavy rain this coming Sunday (it's Thursday today) at Harts Pass. Which means there's a storm blowing in on Sunday. And that's a problem: from Harts Pass (30 miles from Canada) on to Woody Pass (12 miles from Canada) the trail pretty much sits at elevation, usually above 6000 ft. To be caught up there, in a storm?--been there, done that, have the T-shirt, not going to do it again if I can avoid it!  So: here's the Plan. It's about 60 miles from Rainy Pass to Canada. If I do 25 miles a day for today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday), that'll put me within 10 miles of Canada. On Friday, then, I set up base c...

And just like that, back on the trail. I didn't get much sleep last night--town's just like that--but I was up by 6:30am, had everything broken down and packed by 7:30am, and was on the Red Bus at 8:00am to head back to the trailhead. Of course, the Red Bus did make a stop at the Bakery, so got a savory croissant and a raspberry twist there. But just like that, back on the trail. And the trail today was tough, at least for me. Over 19 miles today, on a steady uphill incline. And granted the incline is about half the grade of what we were doing in the last section--300 ft/mile as opposed to 700 ft/mile--but maybe it was the heavy bag (6 full days of food!), maybe it was leaving town (I'm always slow the day out of town, it seems), maybe it was the lack of sleep, but I felt lethargic all day. And my left ankle was complaining all day too, and now with new tendons--the ones on the outside and around the back--doing most of the shouting. So it was a long day. And while I may ha...

Slept last night, some, but not well. In fact, intentionally so. I wanted to charge my devices in anticipation of going to town--that way, when I get to town all I need to charge is my battery bank--but I forgot to charge during dinner, so I started charging late, then intentionally slept poorly so I'd wake in the middle of the night to unplug it all (otherwise it keeps going and drains the battery to zero). Also, I needed to wake up early, so sleeping poorly helped that. But as the morning dawns, I'm not rested at all--my Garmin watch measures "body battery", which basically says how well you slept at night, and on a good day when I wake I can get it up to 70/100. It's at 5/100 right now. My nerves are frayed, I'm can't calm down, I feel the need to go go go, push push push, rush rush rush, go faster faster faster. But that just makes me liable to make mistakes and out here, mistakes mean I end up not only hurt, but possibly dead. Better to be reckless an...

Today was supposed to be a good day. The storm had passed, the sun came out in the morning. I was supposed to get everything dry--finally!--and then make big miles to Cedar Camp, so tomorrow I could enjoy a short trip into Stehekin--just 10 miles or so--to make the noon shuttle. I didn't get everything dry, I did make it to Cedar Camp but after 9pm, and I'm so totally exhausted physically and mentally I don't know if I can make the 10 miles in time tomorrow. Bad day bad day bad day bad day bad day. The day started with a climb out of Suiattle River. I've realized the difference between the climbs in Oregon and Washington isn't necessarily the gradient--they're comparable--it's the distance. In Oregon the climbs are a couple miles. Here in Washington, today's climb was 12 miles. 12 miles of going up. And I was slow, so slow. I couldn't get any speed going. And things were starting to hurt: it seems after the storm, all the panic chemicals went away, a...