Urich Cabin (mile 2,344) to mile 2,317
Miles: 27
OK OK. That's a misleading, click bait-y title. I did not, in fact, get high on any drugs today. I did, however, take a big ol' hit off the mountain pipe and enjoy the intense natural high of emerging from several days stuck in the forest to sunny, beautiful ridge lines with views of Washington's biggest mountains.
Last night's sleep was rough. Sleeping in the abandoned cabin's loft, I listened as the mice went to town on something metal downstairs with what sounded like a circular saw. They made it clear that I was a visitor in their mousey domain. When my alarm went off at 6:30AM, I turned it off and didn't wake up again until 9AM. Ahhhhh. Gotta love a late morning. I probably could have slept longer but the elk had come back and were ripping up the meadow grass. The elklings (that's what I've decided to call baby elk, no internet out here so I can't look it up) were making squealing noises. I looked outside and saw two elklings nursing on their mothers directly in front of the cabin. So cool! Such nature!
I used the outhouse (always a notable event), ate my breakfast of a maple pop tart, and packed up, hitting the trail at 9:30AM. Some thru-hikers say that the goal for any day should be "10 by 10" (10 miles by 10AM). My personal version is "begin hiking by 10." Self explanatory though not as catchy.
The instant I started hiking today, I felt bored. "Only boring people get bored." No. Stop that. Hiking alone in the forest for 10-12 hours/day for three days is boring. To combat the boredom, I started listening to the audiobook of Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the 21st Century". You know, nothing to spice up a morning like a 500+ page economics treatise on income inequality. It was actually fascinating, but three hours in I grew too frustrated with the constant references to graphs and tables that I couldn't see, so I turned it off. Instead, I switched to the audiobook of Aziz Ansari's "Modern Romance", basically the opposite of "Capital in the 21st Century". Aziz's book is hilarious, fascinating, and read by Aziz himself. I highly recommend it.
Hiking alone and focusing on the audiobooks, I ended up hiking fast. I covered 27 miles in just about 10 hours. Woah. That would have been a major feat a couple weeks ago. The trail in this section is in much better condition than much of the North Cascades, with a few thousand feet less climbing to do, so those factored into the speed.
Around 3PM, I finished my biggest climb of the day and ended up on ridge lines that I'd stay on through Chinook Pass and all the way to my campsite. The ridges were incredible. Enormous views of Mt Rainier, Mt Adams, a very distant Mt St Helens, and all the ranges in between. My favorite view was looking at Rainier over a ski resort that I visited last year.
At one point, I found myself walking along the very crest of a ridge, only ten or so feet wide, with panoramic views on both sides. That's what it's all about.
Rolled through Chinook Pass, which is just a parking lot with bathrooms, and down to a campsite at Dewey Lake. Shared the site with Orion, a SOBO thru hiker who I met in Stehekin and the section following, and a middle aged weekend camper who dubbed himself "Old Goat". He peppered us with questions about the trail, responding to every other answer by whispering under his breath, "that's so cool." Thanks, Old Goat. It is pretty cool.
Ate two packs of ramen, a bunch of Cheez Its, and a 100 Grand bar all in my tent since I'm adjacent to a lake and the mosquitos are especially bad.