Surprise Post

Amazingly got some Internet in the tiny town of Skykomish! We are at mile 2476 and have about 193 miles to go. One more town stop and we'll be in Canada. The past few days have been rainy, wet, and cold but we're hoping the weather turns around!

 

                 

Tired, Sick, and Exhausted but the End is Near!

We left white pass and had a few extremely cold days and nights. The only way to stay warm was to keep moving so we hiked fast. I also came down with a bad cold that I've been fighting since then. One day, a friend's parents met us on trail with a bunch of fresh fruit and goodies so we stayed for a while and played cards against humanity (some hunters had brought it with them). We also met a Ukrainian family who were out for the day collecting mushrooms. After chatting with them for a bit, they ended up giving us all their leftover food which included fresh tomatoes and tangerines. After a couple more days of hiking we ran into some more trail magic! Stumbling Norwegian and Honey Bee, two previous through hikers, were set up next to the trail cooking burgers and dogs for the hikers. They also had coolers full of sodas and beer and a ton of cookies and brownies for us to munch on. We hung out for the night as they made us dinner and then woke up to breakfast being cooked for us in the morning. I also remembered that Stumbling Norwegian was the same guy who had given me a shake down (gone through my pack and helped with the things I don't need) all the way back at kick off,  145 days ago. He was ecstatic to see that I was still on trail and still using the advice he had given me. We reluctantly said goodbye to them and made it into Snoqualmie pass where we ran into another couple doing some trail magic. They had just come from a phillipino wedding and had tons of amazing food to share with us. We were completely overwhelmed by the generosity of strangers we had recieved. We vowed to give back to the trail next year. Today we head out to finish up the last 266 miles of the trail.  This will be the last post until I reach the Canadian border but there will be more stories to come. Mile 2402.

Damn, it's Cold in Washington

We left Cascade Locks after a huge breakfast and hit the trail till we found an awesome lake that we spent the rest of the day at swimming. That night we sat around the campfire and read Harry Potter out loud. The next couple days we took it slow and waited for some friends to catch up which created a huge group around us. It started raining early one morning which is the only thing that got us out of camp and away from our morning fire. That night we got to a campground where our friend Pan had some college friends meeting her. They ended up making us delicious gorgonzola stuffed burgers and hanging with us for the night. They even made us breakfast the next morning! We lazed around at the campground for a good portion of the day and then hit the trail again. We were taking a break the next day when our friends Big Dirty and Mongoose came walking up the trail. We hadn't seen them since mile 700 so it was incredible to see them again. We hiked the rest of the day with them and camped around a lake as we shared dinner around the fire pit. Unfortunately we lost them again the next day. It was freezing the next morning but the only way to get warm was to get moving so we hiked fast. Later we ran back in to our friend Sad Fish and made a plan to get to town by Friday night. Unfortunately we discovered that the post office in town wasn't open on Saturdays and that we would have to get there earlier on friday to pick up our packages. We went into book it mode and did quite a bit of night hiking. The next day we entered the Goat Rocks wilderness and by far the most beautiful section of trail we've seen so far. We could see mount Adams and Rainier all day long. We got to the top of the goat rocks just as the sun went down and the darkness ensued. Unfortunately,  the way to get off the goat rocks is down something called the knifes edge. It's an extremely narrow, rocky, and steep section of the trail that we definitely should not have been in at night. There was no where to camp and the wind was whipping us around as we kept moving slowly down the knifes edge. We found a small depression in the rocks at the side of the trail and set up for an uncomfortable night. What we didn't expect were all of the mice that also lived up there. We were battling them all night,  trying to scare them off with rocks. I even woke up to one bold mouse chewing on my toes through my sleeping bag. We woke up to lots of things chewed on, a massive hole in one of my shoes and my shoelace eaten in half. It was all worth it when we woke up the next morning to see the sun coming up across the whole valley. One of the most amazing sunrises I've ever seen in my life. We had to get moving though,  partially because it was still freezing and windy up there and because we still needed to make it 17 miles into town before four to get to the post office. I took one ten minute break that day and made it there by three. Luckily my new shoes were in the box as well as some delicious caramel brownies that are always a huge hit with us hiker trash. Oregon was so flat our climbing muscles were out of shape and many of us had a rude awakening when we entered Washington so we took a zero day to rest our aching legs. We'll hit the trail again later today at mile 2303 and start the last two weeks of our trip. Only 365 miles to go from here! This may be my last post until canada due to the lack of service in the next few trail stops. Stayed tuned for the home stretch!