Another day of life on the trail. Ah, so minute-to-minute, so up and down, so much the journey of life itself. I got up three times to pee last night. I must be getting old, or maybe, it was way too much food, three beers, and more lemonade than I’ve consumed the whole trail. There was an outhouse at our campsite last night, so I hung all my food on a nail inside it, in case a bear came to visit. Thought I was pretty slick doing that. And it worked -- no bear. But if there had been one, he would have just ripped up the outhouse and my food would have been gone. So Tabasco and I slept in. Really? At 7:48 am he called out to see if I was awake. I mumbled some mumbo jumbo, then he said something about missing the shuttle bus to town, which for some reason we both thought would come down that gravel road around 8am.
It was on! Both of us scrambled like wild animals to pack up. Tabasco beat me! But he was already awake when we started; I was still coming out of some crazy dream in which I was playing basketball for the Tar Heels in a big time game in a huge arena in front of thousands of fans. Weird what we dream. 8:05 am. We were packed up and we walked to the Stehekin Ranch. They were so happy to see us...especially since we hung out in the dining area drinking coffee and hot chocolate by their fireplace and we didn’t buy breakfast or spend the night in their $75 per person tent with no electricity or heat.
It really wasn’t planned and I’m not sure why Tabasco spent the money, but we were determined to ride that school bus once more to Stehekin Lodge and landing area. 9:15 we got on the bus; paid $5 each. Got the bus to stop at the bakery, where we both bought about 5 pounds of day old bakery items. I ate a piece of pizza. Got to town and had an hour and fifteen minutes before we would spend another $5 to ride the bus 12 miles the other way. Go figure.
I went to the one and only phone in town. I still can’t believe it’s the only phone for a community of 98 full-time residents and with tourists, maybe 300 people per day milling around the lake, lodge, restaurant, store, post office, campground and public shower, laundry and phone. There was a line of three people to use the phone once I got on. So I made a quick call to some ex-thru-hikers in Portland. By the time I was off the phone, it was raining and Tabasco had kindly moved my pack under the eave of the building. He and I crammed ourselves in the tiny laundry room and prepared our packs and ourselves for a day of rain.
We tried in vain to hitch out of the landing area, back to Stehekin Ranch, but no cars came by. So we were on the 11:15am bus and we entertained the other passengers and got the bus to stop at the bakery again…another piece of pizza and a soda and more pastry to load in our packs. The bus stopped at the ranch for a few minutes, then drove us up the newly repaired section of formerly washed out gravel road and dropped us off near the trailhead.
It began raining lightly just as we got off the bus. So at 12:30 we hit the trail. I led for the first time since leaving Drakesbad Resort. Determined to maintain a leisurely pace with my painful heel blisters, I took it slow. Tabasco didn’t seem to mind. We plodded along for a couple hours in the rain. We gently climbed all afternoon, with a roller coaster trail in deep forest laced with mossy covered trees and ferns. Many stretches not in forest were overgrown and the overgrowth soaked my clothes, body and feet. Still, my spirits were high from the town visit, full belly, and relatively warm rains at lower elevation.
We made a couple brief stops under large hemlocks which provided a dry spot at their base. At 4:45 we had covered 12 miles and had a chance to pitch our tents (yes, both of us are finally camping in tents) between rain showers. The campsite at Hemlock Camp was next to a nice flowing river and offered soft, flat ground. We pitched tents, ate an early dinner, then made a great fire as rain fell, but not under the tree Tabasco had chosen to camp under. Out came the Glenlivet 12 year old single malt Scotch, which Tabasco’s friend, Sophia, had sent from Seattle. We sat by the fire and dried out wet gear and polished off the Scotch, all of it!!!
Now I love good aged single malt Scotch, a taste I acquired on the AT. We never really felt the effects of the Scotch, with our thru-hiker metabolism, but I can say it was a very enjoyable way to spend a wet evening, in front of a warm campfire in the Glacier Peak Wilderness of the North Cascades. We shot two silly videos with Tabasco’s camera, including me dancing a jig and acting some redneck North Carolina stuff for the video. Tonight I’m in the tent, dry and thankful the rain has stopped and tomorrow promises to be a good weather day. Met Pear, a NOBO, who kept on trucking after we talked for five minutes. Great rainy day in the woods! Today’s weather: cloudy and rainy. Low 50, high 53. Today’s mileage: 12.1; cumulative miles: 1416.0.
