Washington – done!

Day 32: 3 miles. Trout Lake – Dirtroad at mile 427

There were 22 tents at the camp behind the church at night and I had hard time sleeping listening to everybodys razzling airmattresses and coughing right next to me. I had also a crazy headache just after two beers I had had in my dehydrated state.

In the morning we walked a mile to the cafe that had only products with pork in them. I got an overprized small quiche and a latte, crazy expensive but I was still hungry after. Then we did what you do on a townday: go to an old-fashioned coin-operated shower, do some laundry, buy expensive resupply. I bought way more food than for the previous sections because I have lost weight and at the previous section I ran out of snacks.

We had more food at the diner and went to sit in the river while drinking beer. The water was so warm I could sit in the river for an hour, and since it was very hot outside it was the only place to be.

I decided to leave to the trail already – always nero, never zero. I wanted to start the next day earlier and not need to do crazy long miles for every coming day. Besides I am slower than the rest of the Dolphines, so they would surely catch me the day after. So I got into a pickup truck with seven NoBos and we got a ride to the forest service road, from which I was the only one to head south. I was camping by another dirtroad just 3 miles from the start point.

Day 33: 20 miles. Dirtroad at mile 427 – Tentsite by Blue Lake

I got up at sunrise a bit before 6, packed my stuff and started walking. There was a tiny bit of drizzling rain which was really the first time it was raining on the trail. The mosquitoes got worse by the day and were as worst in the afternoon.

The trail passed mostly forests but it was going a lot of up and down. And a NoBo had told me it would be all downhill for us!

I found a table for my lunch for the first time on the trail. Soon four NoBos joined me. One of them had hurt her knee and was waiting for someone to pick her up from a dirtroad. We had a funny conversation about hitchiking and fear on the trail. A man who had hiked the Colorado Trail on a high snow year had similar experiences to mine – at first you decide to bail out because it is too dangerous, then you eat a Cliffbar and decide the trail was actually ok. He had walked the PCT all the way to Washington and said hiking is suffering every day. What else can you say. It is a lot of ups and downs every day, but the ups are so magical you still decide to continue the suffering.

I passed some lakes and decided to camp by a beautiful one that had a little breeze. I took a swim in it. I told some NoBos to “pass on a message to The Dolphins that Whiskey is by Blue Lake”. Passing this kind of messages on the trail is totally normal and the NoBos just said that sure they would.

The Dolphins didn’t get to the lake that night but I was sure they would catch me the day after.

Day 34: 23 miles. Blue Lake to Panther Creek

I woke up when some early hiker passed my tent at 05.30. I got up myself and noticed that the mosquitoes were awake unusually early. I had breakfast first after the first climb of the day. The views were good and the trail was easier than ever before. No rocks or roots and the elevation gain was smooth. Even the mosquitoes disappeared after sheep lake.

There was a longish water carry, around 12 miles but it wasn’t terribly hot. I met a woman and her teenage kids and she told she was exhausted and had no more motivation to hike. There seem to be some hikers who after almost 2000 miles are completely torn out and tired, while others look still fresh and happy. I saw probably a record amount of NoBos, every 5 minutes one would come up from a switchback. They seemed often unknowing of each other and probably didn’t know I had to exhange the same greetings 150 times. One older man was commenting that it has been such a quiet morning. I told him he is surely not alone on the trail. As SoBos we see almost all NoBos but they don’t necessarily meet each other if they are walking approximately the same pace or if the faster ones are ahead of the slower ones.

I had lunch with some nice NoBos from The Netherlands and France. They had started early so they did have some snow at the Sierras but never had used iceaxes. They said this was the first hiker bubble they had since Lake Morena, that is really the first stop from the start.

I kept on hiking, listening to an audiobook and greeting the line of NoBos. I came down to the lowest point I’ve probbly hiked on this trail, it felt almost tropical with all the green exotic plants. My feet were exhausted from ascending for miles and miles. I sent an Inreach message to The Dolphines and they showed up just a bit later, having crushed their first 26 miles day on the trail. They all disappeared somewhere in the vegetation with their tents since I had found a place for only one tent between some gigantic fallen trees.

This was surely the easiest and fastest day on this trail.

Day 35: 16 miles. Panther Creek to Rock Creek

I got up around 6 as usual and put together my stuff extra quickly. I was biting a bar while I walked planning to stop for a breakfast later. Before Wind River I saw a couple of NoBos by some freezeboxes and realized it was trail magic. For the first time for me on the trail! I drank some Dr. Pepper and ate chips and candy while chatting with more NoBos that were coming in. What a healthy breakfast!

After that I had my bloodsugar rushing up and down. I stopped by a river to have my coffee and waited for the Dolphines but they didn’t show up. Apparently they had got lost and walked a mile to a wrong direction missing the trail magic.

I kept on going and the trail was quite monotonic, doing similar switchbacks in a green humid forest and going a lot up and down. I had to greet a new NoBo every 5 minutes. There was nowhere to have a break and I had to rush down a steep hill from a switchback when I needed to suddenly poo.

I had a lunch off trail on another trail. I was so tired but I had planned to walk a 22 mile day to have a shorter day to Cascade Locks the day after so I had to continue.

There was a longish water carry and I missed the first creek after that. I went to a tentsite where somebody had pooped right on the tentplace without any effort of burying it. Besides it was next to a watersource.

As I was coming down to Rock Creek, the last water source for the next 12 miles I got a message from Skratch saying they were struggling and planning to camp by that creek. I decided to also stay there although it was not even 5 p.m. yet – I didn’t want to finish Washington alone.

The creek was amazingly beautiful, like an oasis and after finding a nice place for our tents I met with Dolphine nb 3 and we jumped into the cold creek. Soon even the rest of the gang arrived and enjoyed the creek. They had struggled with how boring and at the same time hard this section was. Croc had forgotten his hammock in a lunchplace but since his principle was “never turn back” he didn’t walk back to get it but was sleeping on a ground “like a homeless person” in his words.

We ate by the water and chatted with some NoBos. We decided to book a hotel for two nights in Cascade Locks and send some boxes to Oregon – if the fires shouldn’t stop us from walking any of that state.

Day 36: 20 miles. Rock Creek to Cascade Locks.

We got up early and I was already hiking at 6 a.m. The trail was going a lot up and even more down, and my shins started getting sore again.

The landscape got exotic once we got to lower elevation than we are used to. It was also very warm. Some NoBos were commenting: “Oh, so many SoBos today!” I think we were in total ten people. I told them that we are surely seeing a lot more NoBos. They have been maybe 20 times the number or southbound hikers.

Croc had to be in a post office by 5 p.m. so we all started hurrying. The last 7 miles we were half running without stopping and it was bloody hot and humid. The rest of the gang was already gone, me and Rebound who had kneeproblems were limping after. The downhills were just endless.

Finally we arrived to the Bridge of the Gods  before 4 p.m. and crossed it while a lot of cars passing by and a crazy wind blowing to us. We found all ot the SoBos drinking beer at Thunder Island Brewing and we drank several pints before dinner. We checked into a hotel and went to eat mexican food drinking margaritas as big as our heads. We had a brilliant idea of doing our resupply box shopping after this. We were so drunk it was difficult to calculate how much food you’ll need for 12 -13 days worth of boxes. And finally the Walmart didn’t accept any of my Swedish credit cards so I had to leave the place without buying anything. I will never resupply in that store again.