The simple things in life—trash drop off and a smelly pit latrine. Even my simple standards are getting lowered. For the most part, I’m a mouth breather so the smell didn’t bother me much. The clear plastic bag of used feminine products was a bit over the top for me. Bunny and I pulled together and hit the trail at 7:58 with lighter packs and empty sigmoids.
We are now in the Mt Hood wilderness. That’s not to say Mt Rainier is out of sight. She still loomed over us early in the day. We didn’t get to see the promised elk at the cabin. The trail continued through some recently burned forest. We tried a new game today…when did this burn? We were examining the dense ground cover and noting trees as tall as 10-15’ but spaced very far apart. We decided it had to be at least 5-7 years since it had burned. We came to a Boy Scout Eagle Project sign that gave us a history of the area. It had been a controlled burn executed with the assistance of correctional inmates. It had taken place 31 years ago, yesterday. With that little bit of info, I’d have to take a guess that it will take another 40 years until this will be an actual forest again.
We did not encounter many hikers of either persuasion (nobo or sobo) today. After the controlled burn area, we did encounter a couple of Germans who now live in Hamburg. We chatted a bit about our trip through Germany from south to north. She asked if we visited Leipzig because she had been born there but her family moved to Frankfurt when she was little. That was before the Berlin Wall fell. We had stayed with Tobias who we had met while hiking the GR10. It’s hard for us to meet any Germans and not think of Axel and Heike and wonder when they are going to finish the GR10 so we can go hike the Tour du Mont Blanc with them.
While talking with them, another hiker came up to us. We offered to let him pass, but he wasn’t in a hurry. We noticed a pruning saw in his hand. He walked with us for about an hour. Matt adopted about a six mile section of the PCT to maintain. This is his third year. He’s trying to build up good karma before he thru-hikes the trail, but it will be a few years thanks to student loan debt. Matt grew up near Harpers Ferry, WV but fell in love with Washington when he graduated from college and moved here 5 years ago.
We managed to maintain a steady 2 mph rate including drink breaks, snack breaks, and Bunny talking breaks. I’m trying to become more talkative, but I have such a hard time forcing myself to interact with strangers. Bunny had set a goal of 11 miles before I would be allowed to eat a sizable snack, aka lunch. We reached her goal and found a shady spot with a nice breeze. I spread out the tyvek for us to sit. We ate lunch and cooled down, but we could hear people talking behind us. I looked up to see a young teen wearing a hoody. I didn’t think much more about it.
Enough food has been consumed that my pack has been reduced in weight back to my comfort zone. My feet still hurt a bit starting around 10 miles, but it’s not too bad. I’m working on stretching more throughout the day and it seems to be improving. I’m still a bit stiff after breaks, but loosen up within a quarter mile of getting going again. Just as I was starting to warm up, we caught up with the young kids that had been making all the noise above while we were eating. Bunny slowed down as we are reluctant to pass anyone because we are so slow. There was a switchback in the trail and I saw the girl; she looked familiar. But when her boyfriend made the turn, I saw a white beard. It wasn’t a teen. It was Richie and Jackie. We had finally caught back up with them after we stayed an extra day in Packwood.
We chatted and discovered we were all heading to the same camping spot tonight. We walked together the rest of the day. Jackie and Richie are doing the entire state of Washington and then flipping back to Cascade Locks, but heading over to Bend. We got to learn a lot more about each other today as we walked and talked for the final 6 miles today. They built their own home in Maui over 20 years ago, and they built it off grid. They are completely solar with a backup diesel generator. Richie said they didn’t know anything about solar when they started and still don’t. “Ask me what kind of generator I have?” so I did. He said “a good one.” I could tell I wasn’t going to get a lot of solar pointers here.
A couple of nights ago, they camped in a burned area. They said everything they touched got black all over them. Richie was digging his morning hole when the people they had been camping with returned. It was a mission abort, and he got black everywhere trying to get presentable quickly. I got the honor of naming my first hiker this year. Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you…Charcoal Butt. He liked it because it comes with the added bonus of embarrassing his wife children when he explains it at parties.
There was a large enough spot next to the dirt road at Tacoma Pass for us to set up our tents. I spread out our piece of tyvek for all of us to eat supper on since it was a comfortable evening. Bunny had discovered blue berries or huckleberries, we’re no longer certain what were eating. After supper, Bunny and Jackie picked berries for us to put in our breakfast granola. It was a scene out of Little House on the Prairie while the woman worked and the men discussed matters of great import that are of no concern to the simple womenfolk. “How many times a night do you get up to pee? Usually at least twice…you?”
EFG