Charcoal Butt and Struggles are early risers and slow movers. They are the epitome of leisurely hikers enjoying the trail. We have spent nearly two days together and they are always happy and friendly to everyone—even jerks on the trail. Luckily, other than me, there aren’t a lot others out here. They could easily give Patches a run for her money on slowness getting out of camp. Last year (when we hiked the AT, everybody drink), Patches was almost always FULO (first up, last out). That’s why we hated to see her finish. It made us feel better not to be last on the trail. (I know, it’s not a race, especially when you’re always losing.)
They lingered this morning for us to pack up and leave first. They pushed us out of the nest, not to help us grow, but to have privacy while they dug holes. Bowel familiarity is the final step in trail families, and they aren’t quite ready to cross that threshold. Also, our tents were so close together last night, I’m sure all four of us were too close and too afraid to fart. I looked back after we were 50 yards up the trail and the combined methane emissions from the four of us releasing all at once caused a distortion in the space-time fabric.
The trail crowd really has thinned out. We didn’t see more than 15 hikers all day, and the majority of them were day hikers or short timers. We did meet a sobo couple, Two Cup and Socks, who were slow-yoing. They thru-hiked the PCT northbound last year. This year they are doing southbound. A true yo-yo is both directions in a single year, hence slow-yo.
This section from White Pass to Snoqualmie is the longest stretch Bunny and I have ever gone without a resupply. Even the Hundred Mile Wilderness on the AT is crossed with roads and we arranged to have a resupply drop in there so we only carried 4 days of food, max. When we did the Wonderland Trail which was about 94 miles, we had cached 2 food drops so, once again, 4 days of food, max. This stretch was 98 miles without any resupply. We didn’t know how our bodies would hold up, so we carried, what we thought was 8 days worth of food. We’re going to make it in less than 7 1/2 days plus we brought way more than 8 days. If we had stuck to our shopping list and what Digit Alice sent us, we would have been fine. Instead, I’m going to walk into town with about 6# of food. We did manage to eat all of the Oreos, M&Ms, and candy bars that we over bought.
We did have one big coincidence today. Bunny and I were both in zombie mode, just hiking and not talking, trying not to focus on our ailments. We both saw a hiker coming towards us with “Hike in Harmony” written on his shirt. We both liked the shirt and looked up to see his face. It was Odie. We shared a shelter with Odie, Stickers, and Lady Bug in the Grayson Highlands in VA last year on the AT. Odie is out hiking a 500 mile section of the PCT this year and spreading the word about the Hiker Yearbook. Last year was his first PCT yearbook. We chatted for a while about how he was doing and purposely avoided the whole AT crazy hiker this year. Odie had tried to get the guy off the trail before he hurt someone. Odie is a good guy.
We were both dragging all day. We tried to take a nap beside the trail when we stopped for lunch but Bunny couldn’t get comfortable. I was just getting into snooze mode which had to be aborted. We just zombied on the rest of the day. It actually was a fair amount of climbing today, over 3000’ but broken up into smaller climbs. I think we’re just worn out old people. We stopped to talk to a young couple out for a 10 day hike and saw a guy with his dog coming towards us. We wished them well and tried to make way for the guy with his dog. He didn’t say hi, thanks, or anything but just barreled past me almost knocking me down the hill. I guess there are assholes everywhere. I just don’t usually expect dog people to be jerks.
A couple miles further on we met another young couple obviously out for a short trip. They were overloaded worse than we are. They asked how far it was to Mirror Lake because they wanted to go spend a few days there. We had just passed this lake, we thought, about 5 miles ago. They looked taken back so we said we’d check for sure. It was only 3.3 miles, but it sure felt a heck of a lot further. That’s when we both knew we were just too tired to keep going.
The spot we had intended to stay at tonight was still another 3 miles. Earlier, we had contemplated going all the way to Snoqualmie. Now we just sat down on the first log we could find which just happened to be in a nice level campsite next to a stream. We’ll still get to Snoqualmie tomorrow but for lunch instead of breakfast. I let Bunny win by agreeing to stop for the night. And I’ll still make her breakfast in bed, like always. She’s a lucky girl. At least I know it and that’s all that matters.
EFG