We had so much fun hiking with Charcoal Butt and Jackie (who now has a trail name but I will postpone revealing it until the proper time in our story) that we decided to change our plans a bit. Our goal is to nearo into Snoqualmie on Wednesday. We were going to shoot for around 16 miles today which would give us a short 10-11 miles tomorrow with about 2 miles in on Wednesday. CB and Jackie are religious “10 miles per day” people. Rather than do a 10 tomorrow, we could switch up and do a 10 today and hike for another day with CB and Jackie.
It’s reminiscent of hiking with Sassy and Bear. They got up early and shuffled around making breakfast. The sound of early risers near us again was so reassuring, it meant we had another 30 minutes of peaceful bliss before we had to get up. We had already been warned they wake up around 5 but aren’t ready to go until 8ish…perfect! We rolled out of camp at 8:15 with a goal of 10.7 miles for the day.
It appears that the sobo bubble has passed. I don’t think we saw more than 3 all day. We did pass a few section hikers out doing the Washington Section. Mala Llama and Hopper were a couple of women finishing up from last year and Blue was thru-hiking sobo this year after thru-hiking nobo last year. She told us that weather wasn’t an issue for her at all in 2018 and she didn’t start until July 15 to avoid all the rain in WA.
Jackie sets a good comfortable pace for us to follow. Charcoal Butt tried to give her Leader of the Pack as a trail name but she was too self conscious of her speed to accept it. When we stopped for a water break, CB had left his hiking poles under a pine tree that dropped sap on his handles. When we stopped at the next water stop, we checked for sap on logs to make sure we didn’t sit on any. Jackie said she hates to get sap on her pants. We offered the suggestion of Sticky Butt which was immediately rejected because she didn’t want to be known as “that butt couple from Hawaii” (which has a nice ring of its own).
As we neared the spot we had planned on, we saw that the water source was a lake about 0.2 miles off trail. We all walked down to the lake hoping to find a spot nearby. Instead, we found a suspicious looking man we are pretty sure lives out of his pickup truck. He has been driving around parks looking through their garbage. He found a huge 3 room tent without poles and was checking it out for holes and trying to figure out what he could do with it. We decided to just get water and head back to the trail.
There was a spot at the trail intersection with the road we were considering, but it had filled up with three car loads of locals (not that locals are bad, but there had been a lot of empty beer bottles and gun casings around the lake and along the road; not the normal thru-hiker contribution to the environment). We had noticed cars driving around the power lines as we had approached the road initially. I was convinced it was someone out looking for a place to bury his wife’s body. Bunny makes me watch way too many episodes of “Forensic Files” when we take a zero. Bunny defended the guy saying he was just letting his dog go to the bathroom. In my mind, that would be the perfect cover. Whatever the case, the area reeked of “n’er do well” happenings. This much, we all agreed on.
The next campsite was only another half mile up the trail. By up the trail, I mean 600’ of elevation gain up. Jackie said she was struggling and didn’t want to lead, but no one else was willing to go first. She said we’ve got to allow her to take breaks as she struggled uphill. By the time we all got to camp we had agreed on some form of Struggles, I suggested False Struggles as she had shown no signs of struggle all day. Jackie rejected the False but accepted Struggles. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, Struggles and Charcoal Butt (formerly know as the butt couple from Hawaii).
Once again, I spread out our tyvek for all of us to prepare and eat supper on. We had mentioned that we were carrying Oreos with us and I noticed a little dabble of saliva escape Charcoal Butt’s cheeks (his face, we’re not that close). When we broke out our dessert, we offered a couple of mint Oreos to each of them. Struggles struggled to refuse but CB said, from his years of experience as a bar tender, when a customer offers you a $100 tip, you say “thank you.” CB twisted open his Oreos and savored the cookies separately from the creamy filling. After 6 days on the trail, he claimed they were as good as ice cream in town.
While we were eating, we saw a hiker go past our camp and then drop down a little trail into our camp. She asked if she could stay with us and CB said “welcome neighbor.” Shuffles tried to find a flat spot in our area (which wasn’t really flat) and decided to just have a snack with us before moving on. Shuffles is a Kiwi and we asked her if she had hiked the Te Araroa as it is on our list. She has hiked sections. This year, she is finishing up the PCT which she had hiked the southern half last year. She did say Oregon had been her favorite part of the trail even with all the mosquitoes.
Getting ready for bed, Struggles found a pile of fresh bear scat in a wild strawberry patch across from our tents. They also found behind their tent,a pile of lasagne a hiker must have thrown out. We have the makings for an exciting night in camp. Struggles wanted us to be sure to wake her if the bear comes back by tonight. I assured her that if we see a bear, she will definitely get woken up.
EFG