Misty Mountain Top

Day 123

Had ice cream and leftover pizza for breakfast. A few lose ends that needed fixing meant that I got going at 8:30 am, which wasn’t terrible. Briefly before I left, I randomly looked out of the window and saw Oldtimer limping over the parking lot with to hikers that I didn’t know. He didn’t seem like he was going anywhere today. I sure hope that it’s nothing serious.

Anyways, when I got back to the trail there was a sign indicating that the difficulty rating of this section was “most difficult”. Hmm. It was overcast and misty today with the aforementioned walking in the actual clouds feel to it.. It often seemed to rain under just a few of the trees, but Intermittently, it would start drizzling or raining in earnest. It was not that warm today l, either. When I was moving a shirt and shorts were okay, but as soon as I paused it would quickly start to feel chilly.

When I got to the top of the ascent the mist seemed to have cleared up a bit, though, and one could get an idea of how the nearby mountains looked, and there remained some beauty not obscured by the low visibility.

The first part of the trail today was actually not too bad, but it got progressively steeper, rocky, and uneven as it ascended. I said to myself that there are limits to how bad it can get as it is also an equestrian trail. Not long after that came a sign stating that horse riders must dismount and proceed with caution. Hmm. The trail then got very rocky, though it posed more of a problem in terms of limited speed than being dangerous.

RocketMan, a French Canadian hiker that I had seen first time around mile 2000, crossed paths with me a couple of times. I also met an older white haired and white bearded hiker called RapidRabbit (at least I think it was rapid and not rabid). Some quick sounding names. The rabbit was the fastest of the three of us. There were also a surprisingly high number of day or section hikers out today.

Somewhat later, a bridge was out and had been so for some time. Luckily, there was a log downstream, which was quite easy to cross on. Getting the short stretch back to the trail, on the other hand, proved quite laborious due to the very thick undergrowth. Still worth it for not getting ones feet wet, though.

I camped a bit short of my goal as there was a long stretch after that with camping prohibited. It was near a creek and RapidRabbit was already there along with two non PCT hikers. One of them were cowboy camping, which I considered brave as it was overcast and looked like it could start raining at any time. At one hand it would be nice if some serious rain could fall and drown out some of the fires in Washington. On the other hand: rain. My pitch of the tent was quite bad, unexpectedly, so it wasn’t as roomy as it used to be, but I managed to organize stuff so nothing touched the wall in case it would start raining.

Today was a bit tough, but more like I was expecting Washington to be. It wasn’t that interesting either. Fingers crossed that we will get some clear weather soon, so that the nature can be appreciated.

This day’s miles: 2393-2415