Mile 2,509 to mile 2,480
Miles: 29
I met a northbound thru-hiker three days ago who told me that the snow on Red Pass slowed her down to half pace. I guess I took that as some sort of challenge.
I packed up my lonely campsite this morning and hit the trail at 7:45AM. With no one there to judge or encourage me to get going early, I didn't. Since I want to make it to the post office in Skykomish by closing, 3:30PM on Friday, and since I had 47 miles and a hitch between me and Skykomish, I set my sites high for the day. If I wanted to finish hiking and start trying to catch a hitch by noon on Friday, I'd need to cut my Friday miles to twenty or fewer.
So I decided to hike 29 miles today. Red Pass and snow be damned.
My first four miles were relatively flat, then I started heading up the pass. This was the biggest climb remaining for the section. Thanks to my huge dinner the night before, and constant snacks this morning, I was energized and ready to rock and roll. I cruised up the pass until I hit snow two thirds of the way up. The patchy snow drifts quickly gave way to wall-to-wall snow blanketing the top portion of the pass. After some pathfinding, I scoped out the trail and was able to slip and slide my way to the top.
Having conquered my primary obstacle of the day by noon, I don't remember much of any of the afternoon. I walked far. The other mountains were pretty. I didn't see another human being between 5PM yesterday and 2PM today. I think, partly due to a lack of socialization, my mind wandered and I didn't take in much of my surroundings.
Ah, yes. Another foot log.
My right knee and Achilles' tendon flared up again this afternoon. The knee is visibly swollen but only hurts when I head downhill. The Achilles feels strained and sensitive.
I listened to the rest of Em's recordings, many of them multiple times (Zach Monty, listened to your podcast twice, even though it's 34 minutes long and at the 8 minute mark you say "well I didn't have anything else planned...") the recordings made me feel like I was right there with all of my closest friends and family. Though the recordings are one-sided conversations, I still felt as if I got tospend time with each person. It was a special way to spend hours of my hike.
In the end, I hiked all day without really slowingor stopping for longer than 15 minutes, and I've got 29 miles to show for it. Pretty proud of that, though it would have been cooler if there was a campsite a mile away and I could have stretched the total to 30.
Just woke up with my phone on my chest. Passed out while writing this journal entry. Now I return to sleep. Early morning tomorrow to crank out the final miles of the section.
Good night.