Ch. 109 – Pinchers & Pumpkin Spice

Today felt monotonous from start to finish, and I’m beginning to realize how tired my body is from the constant over exertion. My calf muscle hurt most of the day, as well, so that didn’t help.

We woke up around 7am and got moving around 8:30. Boostie and I hiked together most of the day, and Frodo got ahead of us. Boostie saw that we could take a road walk to a spring, so we did that, but the spring was dry. I wish I’d have known which one we were going to, because I saw the comment last night that the spring no longer existed. Farout even called it “Formerly Three Corner Spring”… I think they just ought to remove that one.

Dangling my feet over a ledge.

Frodo had his lunch next to the first creek of the day, and we joined him. We lazed around for maybe an hour or so before motivating ourselves to push on the last ten miles to camp. The motivation did not last, though.

Eventually, Frodo got ahead and it was just Boostie and I again. Washington has been more humid than California or Oregon, so both of us had stubborn sweat clinging to us. In a patch of sunlight, we threw off our packs and basked in the sunlight. I found a nice rock to lay back on, and accidentally fell asleep! Luckily, my nap was short-lived because I woke up as quickly as I fell asleep… but I couldn’t believe that I fell asleep on a literal rock! That really explains how tired I’ve been lately.

We crossed that river yesterday!

En route to camp, we made a couple other short pit stops and breaks for snacks and views. I dangled my legs off a ledge while eating a granola bar, and thought about how terrified my mom would be if she saw me in that moment. Somehow, I felt perfectly safe and unafraid. Boostie said I must have become numb to my fear of heights simply by exposing myself to it frequently.

At camp, we made dinner and set up our tents. I went down to filter water, and shouted out to Boostie and Frodo, “Crawdads!” Boostie came to check it out, and ended up finding something even cooler – giant salamanders! We both convinced Frodo to come check those out, and the three of us walked around the creek in the dark finding all the crawdads, salamanders, and little fish that we could. It felt like being kids in the creek again! One of them pinched my spork as I cleaned the dirt off from dropping it earlier. Silly little critters!

Not the most high quality image – but there’s what we believe to be a Cope’s Giant Salamander!

Back in my tent, I drank my pumpkin spice chamomile tea. Boostie had to heat water for me because I had a lapse in judgment about how much fuel I had left. I thought I had half a canister left; as it turns out, I have none. He bought a brand new one in town, so at least we have enough to share until we make it to the next town!