No sleeping in this morning for Debi and me because she left her cell phone in Michelle’s car, by accident, last night when we drove one car to dinner. We started calling Debi’s cell phone at 6:50am, hoping Michelle would pick up, which she did on her way to work at 7:30. Tabasco called at 8am to say he was in the lobby of the Summit Lodge, back from Seattle after being shuttled by friend Tim. Debi and I got showers and I packed up my gear; then Tabasco came up and took a shower before all three of us went down to the lobby and I checked out.
We sat in the lobby for awhile, talking, then Debi treated us to lunch at the restaurant next door. After lunch we sat with Bloody Knuckles, Whistler, H, and Batteries for a few minutes after I said goodbye to Debi, so she could start her four hour drive back to Portland. At 12:30 Tabasco and I left the lodge to head to the trail. On the way out we passed Good Foot and Toaster on their way to the pass. Briefly we high-fived each other, then Tabasco and I made the initial trail climb out of Snoqualmie Pass up to the ski slope.
Five or six miles into the afternoon we stopped for another lunch, a late one. Ten miles into the afternoon we encountered Beer Poet, a 2001 AT thru-hiker who I met at the Paul C. Wolfe shelter, just before Waynesboro, VA. Funny how the mind can remember such details. The Johnson City, TN thru-hiker and I talked for a few minutes about the AT, trails back home and life since the AT.
Soon we were back on trail and a few more miles passed before we rounded a corner and there in front of us were Hidalgo and Nitro and Cookie Monster. I gave Nitro a big hug and we lamented the fact that we didn’t get a chance to spend time together at Snoqualmie Pass. After exchange of about 30 minutes, we congratulated our NOBO friends, then continued south.
About 30 minutes before dark we encountered the last of today’s NOBO friends, Donna and Gruevy, who I last saw at the Saufleys. A few minutes later Tabasco and I were hiking in near darkness, at about 7:15pm. We hiked until we couldn’t see the trail and at 7:30 pulled out the headlamps. We got to our campsite and found a cooler with beer and soda (trail magic provided by Garbage Man and Undertoe). We searched in the dark for a flat spot and finally found an old logging road to camp on.
Content with beer and soda to go along with dinner, we ate at the front of our respective tents as the cold night set in, and I struggled with numb hands that didn’t want to cooperate. Tabasco went to sleep almost immediately. He pretty much stumbled through today’s hike after two fun nights with some gal in Seattle. I was much more rested than my hiking partner, but nevertheless, was too tired to journal after dinner. I crawled in the sleeping bag and called it a night. Today’s weather: sunny; low 32, high 58. Today’s mileage: 18.6; cumulative 1594.8.
