Even though it wasn’t a zero day, we still paid for a hotel (paid dearly for a hotel) so there was no way I was checking out 1 minute early. We tried to sleep in, but just couldn’t pull it off. We went down to the deck by the restaurant to find the self appointed mayor of Stehekin and join him for breakfast. Numbers was also there. For a short while, Bunny and I considered staying another day, but Numbers is leaving on the ferry tomorrow and JYD is leaving today. I don’t think Charcoal B and Struggles will be in until tomorrow afternoon, so there won’t be anyone around that we know.
I keep trying to remind myself that Stehekin is a NP resort town and everything has to be brought in by boat, but, damn! After breakfast, Bunny insisted on doing some grocery shopping to get us into Mazama. It’s only 20 miles and JYD already let us take a couple of dinners to go with the food we scrounged from the hiker box for breakfast. All we need are a few snacks. It cost us $37 for candy, triscuits, summer sausage, cheese, and a pop tart. There’s no way we’ll eat all this by Mazama. On the way to the bakery, Bunny insisted we stop at the organic farm and buy some fruit. Am I the only one that sees when Bunny shops with me, my back gets broken from carrying too much food?
There was lots of buzz about cinnamon rolls and biscuits and gravy from the bakery, both of which we got yesterday on the way into town. The other “not to miss” item was the pizza. I went in with the intention of getting one slice along with some peach pie a la mode. It appears I’m not the only person in the valley who loves peach pie because it was sold out. Bunny still has an upset stomach, so in the interest of a simplified diet, she just went straight for the sugar and avoided any hint of protein. She had blueberry pie a la mode and I placated myself with two slices of pizza.
Despite our efforts to not over eat, which were not very successful since we had two meals in under two hours, we found ourselves bloated once again. We sat in induced slumbers (Bunny’s sugar induced and mine meat induced) waiting for the shuttle to pick us up and take us back to the trail head. The bus pulled up to the bakery and waited long enough for everyone on board to go grab some food before taking off again. This is a one family valley. The water ferry, bakery, guest ranch, and bicycle rental business are all owned by the same family and the NP runs everything else.
On the ride back to the trail, Bunny and I just about went down for the count. We were both having trouble keeping our eyes open for the ride. It was sure shaping up to be a long afternoon since we had a permit that required us to hike in over 11 miles before we could camp. We did look on Guthook for a description of the camp which said it was closed due to excessive bear activity. This helped perk us up a bit.
Eight people from the bus all headed north. We were all heading for the same campsite. Bunny and I were first on the trail (yay, we finally are first) but quickly got passed by the 6 other people heading to our camp (boo, things have returned to normal). It was rather warm walking with pretty high humidity. Our waddle was a tad uneven at best.
Two of the people that passed us were soon falling prey to the heat and humidity. After about 4 miles, they were trying to find an alternate campsite because 11 miles was too far for them in this weather. They are from Mammoth, CA and are not used to this kind of heat. We eventual caught up with the group of three (a father and son with a coworker of the dad). They were cooling off in a stream less than two miles from camp. Ultimately, we were the second ones to camp just behind the only other thru-hiker that was on the bus.
Six mile camp must be six miles from something, but what, I don’t know. This campsite has a latrine, reliable water source, a designated cooking area, and a bear box. I’m pretty sure the bear box has nothing to do with bears and everything to do with the aggressive squirrels around camp. When I went over to start supper, the squirrels were running within a foot of anyone in the area.
We ended up with 7 people in camp tonight—the six we were expecting as well as a sobo who just started his hike today at Rainy Pass. This is the first social meal we have had in Washington. We’ve eaten many meals with Struggles and Charcoal B, but this is the first one where a bunch of people we didn’t know all got together to eat. This happened because of the setup in the NP providing a designated cooking area. It’s a very different situation on the AT because of the shelters. Nearly every night, we’d eat around people that we might not have met until arriving at the shelter.
The father and son have been section hiking WA for six years now. Only the son has a trail name…Salt Lick. A couple years ago, he hung his underwear in a tree to dry over night. He heard movement behind his hammock in the night. He turned on his flashlight to see a mule deer chewing on his underwear. The deer then ran off with his underwear and neither were ever seen again. I told him to consider himself as very fortunate that he wasn’t wearing his underwear at the time.
EFG