At 6am Tabasco did his usual wake up call and I responded that it would be nice to sleep in…he agreed and we didn’t get up until 7:15. Most of our gear was still damp and we were cold while packing up. At least the sky was clear and the sun would warm us up. We started hiking just before 8am and it wasn’t until almost 9am that we reached Windy Pass….whoops!, we thought we were camping at Windy Pass last night, but weren’t totally sure. So I started counting the day’s mileage at 9am from Windy Pass.
The next four miles were absolutely breathtaking, with incredible views looking south, west, and north of the most beautiful, spectacular range of mountains I think I have ever seen, even more beautiful than the High Sierras. We stopped several times to take photos and Tabasco shot a panorama video, which we’ll someday put on the website. Slowly we made our way to Harts Pass. Before reaching the pass we could see a small outhouse type building on the left, uphill about 50 yards off trail, and a large wall tent with smoke rising. Tabasco said he wanted to use the facility and maybe see about some trail magic. I let him climb up the steep hillside while I waited in a sunny spot and ate a snack. A few minutes later he called me to come up.
When I got to the tent, a fine looking older lady and Tabasco were talking and I could see that Tabasco had a plate and plastic fork in his hand. He gave it to me…scrambled eggs with bacon cooked into the eggs…so ironic because about 30 minutes earlier I was talking about how hungry I was and how I could go for a big breakfast of eggs and bacon. We had missed a big plate by about 30 minutes…Judy, the cook for an outfitter/guide service (and owner) had just fed almost all the morning leftovers to her dogs. But we were still grateful for the organic eggs and the organic tomatoes she gave us.
From there we tried to locate where the PCT crossed at the pass and ended up spending a half hour trying to figure out which trail at the pass was the PCT. We finally got back on right where we had left to go to the outhouse and it turned out the trail never took us to Hart’s Pass, just brushed beside it, though the map and data book led us to believe otherwise. I was now a little exasperated, it was after 11am and we had hiked less than 5 miles. Then, two northbound section hiking women passed and Tabasco struck up a conversation with them, while I was anxious to move on. A few minutes passed and we resumed hiking.
We got a couple miles behind us when we came upon two women stopped beside the trail at a beautiful viewpoint with a little girl and baby. Tabasco was talking with them when I arrived about 30 seconds behind him. I knew we were trying to reach the top of a windy place with a view on the southwest shoulder of Tatie Peak and that we weren’t there yet, so I didn’t want to stop. And one of the women was breast feeding her baby, so I thought it best to keep hiking. Tabasco wanted to stop for lunch there, hoping for some additional food. All morning we had both been so hungry, but I talked him out of us lunching there and we continued on another mile to the Pass. There we spread out all gear and clothing to dry while preparing lunch. The two women, Martha and one whose name I don’t know, appeared and visited with us while we ate, asking a lot of trail related questions. We took some photos of them together with their children and they stayed until the kids got too fussy, then left us to finish our drying and eating.
It was after 2pm and we had barely hiked 10 miles. I was antsy and in a bad mood, with both heels rubbed raw from the new shoes (same as the old shoes) and painful steps all day. I know, it was a stunningly beautiful day, with gorgeous puffy white clouds, snow covered peaks, warm sunshine, easy trail and I was angry and wanting to quit. I thought about losing 42 days and how now I was going to have to suffer cold and wet days for two more months and still couldn’t finish. And I wondered why I should keep hiking when my feet are in such pain, we have to hike all day and I’m tired of climbing and I’m tired of being focused on this hike since April and I just crossed the halfway mark, and I just want to be in Portland seeing Debi, since we are now dating. The afternoon was very unpleasant for me as all the mental stuff was dragging me down.
We finally hit a long stretch of downhill, about a 2500 foot drop over 5 miles and I got a mental and physical break from all that negativity. Around 5:30pm my spirits were lifted greatly when we encountered my dear friend Opto (Kay) who I had last seen at Kennedy Meadows and who hiked on the AT with me, briefly, in '01. I was so happy to see her and she was just as happy to see me. With her were Bill and Buddy (the little dog that has made it the whole way this year on the PCT, except the Sierra), two hikers I hadn’t met, named Cub and Quasimoto. Kay and I talked for half an hour, along with Tabasco. Finally we were all cold standing still in dark forest, so we said goodbye and resumed hiking.
Now after 6pm, Tabasco and I had to hike hard and fast to make camp by 7:20, with nightfall quickly approaching. We set up in a designated campsite next to the west fork of the Methow River. I decided to cowboy camp in these deep woods next to the river, but erected the free standing fly of my tent just in case the rain should reappear overnight. I was so hungry I cooked and ate two dinners, plus a candy bar (tomorrow’s food) for dessert. Just as we were finishing dinner, Tabasco saw a set of eyes with his flashlight….a large, very unafraid deer in the campsite looking at us. We chased it off…twice, and now since I’ve been journaling it has come back and is right next to me, just 10 feet away. I have put the fly over me and the gear, to keep the deer from licking the salt off my gear or chewing on it…it obviously is used to humans and may keep bugging me tonight.
So I’m in a better mood now, and it’s not so cold I couldn’t write a full journal entry, but my feet (heels) are really raw and blistered, so tomorrow will be another painful day hiking another 20 miles or more. Having pain while walking this far into the journey is not fun. But at least Stehekin is only a day and a half away. Today’s weather: sunny to partly cloudy. Low 30, high 62. Today’s mileage: 20.2; cumulative 1368.7.
