We were awoken by Marilyn trying to wake of Richie and Jackie in the Garden Suite. They left yesterday. She spent 15 minutes before giving up. It was past time for us to get up anyway. We wanted to eat breakfast at 8 when Cruisers opened up. We made it to the restaurant by 8:30. Marilyn is having her teeth pulled today (a belated birthday present—she turned 76 yesterday). She is only getting a pain pill and a nerve numbing pill because she has to drive herself home afterwards. We decided at breakfast to take another day off and drive her, but they had already left by the time we got back to the hotel.
I waited for Bunny to pack. Half my life is waiting for Bunny, but god help me if she ever has to wait 10s for me. I carried: my pack, the poles, the loaner clothes, her boots and socks, the garbage, the spoons we borrowed, and the key downstairs while I was waiting. When she finally got her pack downstairs, I asked for the phone to call my parents…heavy sigh and talking under breath “why did you wait until the last minute?” I didn’t answer with the truth—because you were on the phone posting to Instagram rather than packing. That’s something I put in the blog and wait a week before we argue about it. I’m learning to keep my mouth shut.
We walked down the highway and saw a trio of hikers trying to hitch. I asked how long they had been trying because we saw 3 girls get a ride in less than 5 minutes while we had been having breakfast. They said “too long.” I told them they should try switching up. There was an old guy with long gray hair and a ratty beard sticking his thumb out while they had a cute young girl with long brown hair sitting down by the packs. I know how to pimp women for rides. I always put Bunny up first. They ignored my suggestion.
We walked on down the road another tenth of a mile. I told Bunny to stay in front of me. Of course, she got ticked off that I attempted to tell her what to do. Another hiker came up and said he’d head on down a little further since we were here first. Within two minutes, we had a ride. The trio was still upstream with an old gray thumb out when we left. We got the other hiker a ride with us to get dropped off at a different location. We have no idea what happened to the other three hikers…they still hadn’t made it up to the pass by the time we hit the trail.
This morning at the hotel, we had our own bathroom. I asked Bunny if she had to go. She said no. We went to breakfast where they had a bathroom. I asked Bunny if she had to go. She said no. We went back to the hotel to pack where we had a choice of bathrooms. I asked Bunny if she had to go. She said no. We quickly caught a ride up to White Pass and stopped in at the lodge to return the clothes we had borrowed. They had bathrooms. I asked Bunny if she had to go. She said no. We walked to the Kracker Barrel to have a snack before hitting the road. They have bathrooms. I asked Bunny if she had to go. She said no. We walked a half mile to the trail and Bunny said she had to go. I’m convinced she’d rather dig a hole than use a toilet. I spotted some latrines ahead. I was expecting her to say she didn’t have to go, but she, finally, went.
There was a 1200’ climb out of the pass, but it was over nearly 6 miles which made it a pretty shallow climb. Nonetheless, it nearly killed both of us. We are carrying way more food than normal because it’s over 100 miles to the next resupply point. Bunny is carrying about 5 pounds more than she should and my pack weighs over 50#. I immediately felt the extra weight in my feet. Bunny’s calves tightened up like a steel drum. We took lots of quick breaks today, but only 1 water stop in the climb.
Several sobos passed us. I always ask if they are true sobos or flippers and if they have met Blues Clues. Today, I got 2 hits on people that had ran into BC. We expect to run into him in the next couple of days. We also heard from Wolf over the last few days and he’s nearing Cascade Locks. He just did back-to-back 25 mile days. We still haven’t done a 20 mile day yet.
Cresting the climb, we immediately dropped into a fairly flat ridge area filled with lots of ponds. This is why we had lots of short stops and no more water breaks. Mosquitoes breed in still water. We had been warned we’d have about a 30 mile stretch of bad mosquitoes coming out of White Pass. We tried slathering up with Jean Luc Picardin, but no bug repellent of any kind works on these little hounds from hell. It didn’t take me long to remember Digit Alice sent us new head nets in our resupply box. It kept them off our face and out of our ears which was a big plus. I still need to get a pair of earplugs because I can’t stand the high pitched whine of the mosquitoes (or my wife—once again, she ignored my advice to wear long sleeves and I paid the price) in my ears.
We (I) had wanted to push on a mile further than where we stopped tonight, but Bunny was in pain. I knew the pain was bad because she was quiet. When she’s in a little bit of pain (which is normal for her hips and calves) she complains quite a bit. As the pain progresses, she grows quiet. That’s when I know it’s bad. And, honestly, my right heel is feeling pretty bad. We worked out a plan to only do about 13 miles for the next 3 days so we can eat up some of the food we are carrying. We have 7-8 days worth of food which is too much for us to carry, but necessary for us to have to cover the distance to Snoqualmie Pass.
We’ve got our camp routine down pretty well by now. We set up the tent immediately when we arrive. Bunny changes out of her boots while I gather what I need to get and filter water. I toss Bunny, her pack, and my sleeping stuff into the tent. While she sets of the beds and gets the tent arranged inside, I make hot tea, filter water, and prepare supper. I then pass everything inside and we eat in our tent away from the mosquitoes. We have quit worrying about bears entirely. There are so many berries along the trail and in the woods that they don’t need to bother humans to get food. It helps that we don’t have a pick a nick basket with us.
EFG