Sept 5th
Campsite N of Panther Creek(2194.5)- N of Sawtooth Mtn Junction(2222)
Today’s Mileage: 27.5mi
I woke up a little earlier and got going with Yankee at 5:45am this morning. Our motivation was trail magic. At the end of the day yesterday, there was a sign posting that trail magic would be 15mi ahead. We still needed to do 12mi, mostly uphill, this morning and we wanted to make it close to 10am. It was mostly forested, but we did get a nice morning view of Mt Adams, where we’ll be hiking tomorrow.
We got there at 10:30am and were excited to see that they hadn’t left yet. The Lees(LeeAnn and Lee) were great! They do a lot of trail angeling and they fed us hot dogs, water melon, potato salad, pound cake, and lemonade. It was a great motivator to get up and over that big climb this morning. After awhile, Chunks caught up and joined us. We spent two hours there and I was definitely ready for a nap when we left.
Unfortunately, instead of a nap, we had more uphill to do. Yankee and I want to do at least 27mi/day over the next four days to get into White Pass, so we still had a lot of miles ahead of us. This being our third day in a row of long uphills was really frustrating. Our packs are still feeling quite heavy and my legs are burning on the uphill. They are just tired. It has been really tiring for both of us, and we have been proud of the mileage we have gotten through each day. I’m happy to have my MP3 player to listen to for distraction and motivation. My sister just got me the Mumford & Sons, “Sigh No More” cd and that is mainly what I’m listening to. I also got some new music from my friends Bridget and Jennifer while I was in Portland, and those have helped too. I am most excited about my new audiobook, which I’m saving until after White Pass. It is Tina Fey’s, “Bossy Pants” and is even read by her. That will totally boost my spirits toward the end of this hike! So excited! We were mostly in the woods, but my favorite view of the day was this one looking back on Mt Hood.
A couple other random things. I got a text from Liz today. She, Funyan, Meow Meow, Half Fast, and Red Blaze are one full day behind us. They are also hiking with Balls and Sunshine who had to take some days off at Cascade Locks because Sunshine had a badly infected blister. When they got back on, they had to skip 15mi because there was a trail closure due to a fire between Wahtum Lake and Cascade Locks. I also heard a section was closed due to a forest fire around Big Lake just south of Mt Jefferson. Sheesh! I just barely got through before the fire closures. With that group right behind me, they may catch up before I get to the border and it would be fun to finish together. I am enjoying hiking without a large group right now, but it would be fun to see them towards the end. A lot can happen in the next 400mi, but it is really getting exciting for us. I can feel that I’m in the homestretch and Canada pops into my head constantly. We have calculate that averaging 25mi days, we would have 17 more hiking days to get to Canada not counting rest days. It really is exciting to think about! The countdown is on!
