Days 110-112, Sunday-Tuesday, July 21-23. Packwood—(Triple Zero)

Our zeros keep piling up innocently enough. Bunny makes a big deal out of scratching my back. It’s gotten so bad, she asks “what’s in it for me.” Even though I haven’t asked for weeks, it still costs. What’s it cost me? In this case, zeros. I need to have Digit Alice send me back my back scratcher in the next shipment if we are going to have any hope of finishing.

The plan was simple: get up at 8, go to Kracker Barrel, do laundry, then hitch a ride down to Packwood where we’ll spend ONE night until the post office opens Monday morning. We’ll pick up our care package from Digit Alice, pack up, and leave. It was apparent from the start that this plan had gone to hell.

We got to Kracker Barrel at 8:10. There were already 5 people ahead of us in line for laundry. Forget about smelling like a town person any time soon. We had breakfast with Someday and Wea where they told us they were definitely getting off trail. Trying to make it to Snoqualmie in seven days was going to be too stressful, plus, they didn’t like being cold and wet. They were formulating a plan of what to do next. It looks like they are going to buy a vehicle and go flea marketing for the next week before returning to the SF Bay Area where they will sell everything for a profit. That’s a big difference between us and them—they go on vacation and make money. We work and lose money so we go on vacation.

We gave up on laundry and decided to hitch to town (20 miles). We weren’t having any luck so I went and made a sign. Right away we got a ride. It was from one of the trail maintenance crew we had met a couple days ago. It was Spook. He hiked the trail last year over 7 months. We’ve been out 5 so far and aren’t even half way. At our current rate, if we work really hard, we’ll finish the PCT in September…2029.

Spook dropped us off right at our hotel. I had called last night and secured our room at the Hotel Packwood. As soon as we saw it, we fell in love. This is an old historic hotel where Teddy Roosevelt stayed when he visited Mt Rainier and camped with John Muir. There are only 9 rooms. The owner had told us that our room wouldn’t be ready until after 1 and we were here before noon. We just wanted to drop off our packs then look around town and eat. She wasn’t happy about us showing up early but quickly warmed up to us when I told her Tom Brokaw was with us. I may have forgotten to mention “not that Tom Brokaw” but we were in.

Dave got a hitch in right after we did. He said he saw Tom outside hitching and when he turned around, he was gone. We had no idea what happened to him. We were concerned, but hungry. Hunger won so we went in search of food. We found Tom at the coffee shop sitting with the people that had picked him up. He had offered to buy them breakfast, but the coffee shop had no food. We all headed down to Cliff Droppers for the best burgers in Packwood.

James, Damien, and Elisha are from around Spokane, WA. They were very friendly and informative about the area. We ate and talked for about an hour before they had to continue on. Damien and James were the only ones with the right to complain about illegal immigration at the table as they were both Native Americans. Damien was also an elder and religious leader of their Nation. When they were leaving, he sang a blessing in their native language to ensure our safety on the trail. It was very moving to me. I am aware that most Native Americans want to be regarded as modern men, but I have always been fascinated with tribal traditions. This stems from my Boy Scout days when I was in Order of the Arrow.

We all made our way back to the hotel. As we were sitting in the living room talking, another couple came in that recognized atom and Dave. Songbird and Five Star had met a couple years ago when they thru-hiked the PCT. He lives in Missoula and she lives outside of Seattle. They were hiking the WA section of the trail so Songbird could collect data for a book she is writing. Later, we all went out for pizza together. As Songbird was talking, we discovered she had already written 4 books on hiking. When Bunny and I said we had hiked the Wonderland Trail, Songbird said she had written a book about that trail. I asked her name and she replied “Tami Asars.”

A few years back when Bunny and I were talking about trails we wanted to hike, she had bought me two trail books for Christmas. One was on the Camino de Santiago and the other was on the Wonderland Trail. The latter was one of the best trail guides I have ever read. It described the trail in narrative detain, included history on the evolution of the trail, and described dozens of itineraries depending upon time allocated and desired direction of travel. I praised this book in our blog at the time. The book was written by Tami Asars, who we were having supper with. Tami gave us lots of great advice for the trail ahead.

The next morning, we just found we weren’t ready to leave town after we got our package from Digit Alice. Because we had been socializing so much the last couple of days, we hadn’t gotten any of the work done on our blog or vlog. Plus, Bunny was still complaining about being tired. I knew if we headed out, she’d probably end up getting sick if she wasn’t fully recovered. Marilyn had to take her husband, Dave, to see a doctor in Portland today, so she wasn’t planning on having any guests since they weren’t going to be around. She agreed to let us stay as long as we would use the back entrance to the hotel.

Marilyn and Dave have owned the hotel for 23 years. Dave “accidentally” bought the place when he had a real estate business in town. Four years ago, Dave was diagnosed with a rare cancer that ended up costing him his leg. Today was his annual follow up appointment. Marilyn and Dave are a charming couple who have deep faith in Jesus and deal with whatever is dealt to them with his help.

Another couple was added to the allowed list, and then a couple more. We ended up going out to supper with Richie and Jackie from Hawaii. They are a few years older than us. They just started hiking a few years ago when they went to Machu Picchu. Since then they’ve done the John Muir Trail, the Wonderland Trail, and Maroon Bells. This tear, they are section hiking Washington. We had plenty to talk about while we ate. Sitting in the restaurant, we watched a herd of Elk walk down the street and graze in the field across from us.

When I tried to get Bunny up this morning was the costly “back scratch exchange.” We hadn’t just had an actual day to lay around and do nothing until today. I agreed as long as she’d get up for breakfast so we could come back for a nap before lunch. After lunch, we ventured back to our room for another nap until I reprised the “half gallon challenge” for supper. I still got it!

EFG

Welcome to the n3xt leg of Washington by Bunny Spielberg