Day 127: Struggle Bus
Date: Wed 8/22
PCT Start Mile: 2172.4
PCT End Mile: 2197.8
PCT Mileage for Day: 25.4
Total PCT Mileage: 2197.8
The Highlights: a long tiring day
This morning I was exhausted. I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. I’m a smart cookie; knowing I would do this, I’d set another alarm for 10 minutes later. I turned this one off too. Not that smart of a cookie… Ut-oh…. No more backups. I woke again around 5:45am and still made no attempt to get up. I told Shawn I was tired and getting up late and then proceeded to drift in and out of sleep until 6. Time to get moving. I quickly dressed and packed and we hiked out at 6:30am.
I wish I could say that the extra bit of sleep this morning did me any good, but since we hadn’t even gotten into our tent until 10pm, it wasn’t really extra sleep. I felt tired and groggy all day.
These first two days into Washington have been fairly exhausting. While our long weekend break was awesome – with lots of time visiting with family and friends and exploring Portland and the Columbia River Gorge area – we probably didn’t get as much rest as we should have, up late every night and not really doing much in the way of sleeping in.
Back on the trail, Washington is throwing long climbs at us, uncaring of our exhausted disposition.
Yesterday had started with a climb of 11 miles and ended with a 5-6 mile climb. Today we spent a significant chunk of the day hiking up a climb of almost 10 miles and over 3,600 ft ascent.
It shouldn’t have been that bad, but it felt terrible. Even taking a break in the middle of the climb for lunch did little to ease the long slog to the top. It was hot and muggy again today and I crawled like a slug up the trail, Shawn far ahead, though later even he would admit he was really tired today.
It’s hard to describe the struggle sometimes. There are days that are physically challenging, but often the main struggle is mental. We are over four months into this journey and everyone is getting a bit mental, honestly. There are times when you kind of just want to throw your pack down and have a little cry, and some people do this, but I trudge on. Today I definitely had one of those mini pity party moments. This blows, I thought. I like couches, toilets, and microwaves. What are we doing out here?
Generally speaking, we have loved this adventure, but we definitely have our moments, our low points. And often these low points are brief. The terrain changes or the weather cools or our legs suddenly feel a bit snappier and suddenly the day is great. Of course we knew this hike would challenge us in many ways. If it was easy, everyone would be out here.
Piped spring.
About 2.5 miles from where we planned to camp for the night, we stopped at the last water source for the day, a piped spring. Here, four other girls chatted and laughed loudly, practically shouting at each other despite the fact that they were no more than a few feet from each other.
As you near the end of the day, you start taking stock of the other hikers that are around and the tent sites that you know are available ahead. You can guess pretty well what site different hikers or groups of hikers are likely going to. When we stumble upon a group of very loud hikers, we hope they aren’t going to the same site we are planning on. Please be southbounders, please be southbounders. We listened to the girls talk for a bit. Ugh. Definitely northbounders. Definitely heading to the same campsite. It was the only logical option at this hour.
Sure enough, they are now camped not far from us, making a needless amount of noise. Cue old crotchety-ness. Cut out that racket!! Get off my lawn!!
Without many other camping options around, there are actually quite a few hikers camped in this area… at least seven or eight others in addition to the loud group of girls and ourselves.
We managed to sandwich ourselves right in the middle of two groups that don’t appear to like being in their tents and sleeping nearly as early as we do. How do we manage this amazing placement? Everyone please go to sleep, we are super exhausted and demand peace and quiet!
And at 8:30pm, my wish came true. Everyone had retired to their tents and all was quiet.
