Day 132: Smooth like Butter(s)

Date: Mon 8/27

PCT Start Mile: 2294.9

PCT End Mile: 2320.4

PCT Mileage for Day: 25.5

Total PCT Mileage: 2320.4

The Highlights: 2300 miles, blue skies, gorgeous views, and Mt Rainier National Park

This morning we slept until 6am, cozy in our warm bed. The skies outside were foggy, but quickly clearing, a bright blue sky overtaking the mist. Yes.

At 7am we checked out of our room and headed over to the Kracker Barrel for hot breakfast sandwiches before walking down the road to the trail. Back on the official PCT.

The morning was cold but sunny and it gradually warmed up a bit as we hiked. It also helped that we started with a gradual climb. Five miles in, we hit the 2300 mile marker. Woot! This one was made of moss, pretty cool.

I made a couple terrible attempts at a selfie of us with the marker before Shawn finally took over. I’m not entirely sad I’m bad at this skill.

As the morning warmed, steam rose off the cold ground. The trail was covered in puddles from rain the previous two days and we did our best to avoid getting our feet wet, our shoes freshly dried from the boot warmer at our awesome condo rental.

While I was able to keep my feet dry, I did manage to plant the rest of myself in a puddle. Tripping on a root along the side of the trail, I went down fast and hard, falling on my left side, hitting the ground with my left arm and face mostly.

My immediate thought, other than owww, was that I’d fallen in a puddle and was getting wet and muddy. No! I struggled to quickly get up. I didn’t want to get wet and muddy! I’d just gotten all dry and clean at White Pass. Ugh. Lost cause, I was covered in grime down my left side. And I’d managed to rip my shirt some more.

For those that may have been sad that I’d had it tailored in Portland, have no fear, it started ripping again by the second day into Washington, so it should be nicely in tatters again by the time we finish the trail. As it should be.

As far as tripping, not a huge surprise, since I trip probably at least 20 times a day, but I rarely fall all the way. Usually I just stumble a bit or am able to run out of the trip, catching myself before falling.

This marked only the third time I could remember completely biting the dust and falling all the way on the ground. It’s honestly a miracle I’ve even made it this far on the trail. I’m not even very good at walking. You can ask Shawn. I trip and stumble all the time and with all the opportunities we have to break an ankle – or worse – it’s a complete amazement that I’m all in one piece at this stage in the game. And that has been the real accomplishment.

Thankfully, the rest of the day was much less eventful in terms of bodily harm or throwing myself on the ground. The afternoon brought a climb with beautiful mountain views against a backdrop of stunningly blue sky with puffy white clouds.

We also hiked through five miles of Mt. Rainier National Park in the afternoon, though views of Mt. Rainier itself were limited to just a bit of one side of the mountain, the top covered in clouds.

Tonight we are camped just up the hill from Large Dewey Lake, a beautiful lake flanked by mountains. With the cold temps we’ve been having in Washington, we’ve been back to using our rain fly.

Our progression (or regression) of setting up the tent throughout this journey has been a bit comical. Starting out in the desert, the nights were cold. We had a Tyvek ground sheet we’d lay down, and then fully stake out the tent and the rain fly.

Eventually we didn’t really see the point of the ground sheet, and stopped using it, finally throwing it away altogether. Then it warmed up enough that we stopped using the rain fly – other than in the Sierras. Then at some point, we stopped staking out the tent. A free standing tent, unless it was windy, we didn’t really need the stakes.

Basically, to some extent, we got lazier and lazier, employing only the bare minimum of what was necessary for tent set up given the conditions. But, as mentioned, now that it’s colder again, we are back to using the rain fly, so staking everything out again.