July 16th 2020
Mile 63.8 to Mile 80.7
I woke up this morning happy again to see that my bear hang did its job throughout the night. I got my things organized and started the 17 mile section through North Cascades National Park.
Most of the morning was a downhill walk through a forested section of trail. There were tons of huckleberries along the trail that were already starting to ripen. I thought they’d be ideal for bears and SURE ENOUGH multiple hikers today told me they saw bears on sections of trail I had just been through.
I crossed paths with a decent amount of people. One was a backpacker that was out for a one night trip that I’d meet again later at camp. One was a thru hiker I saw during the border tag who was originally a day behind me. He was hiking into Stehekin today to resupply. I got the sense that he had no problem with 20+ mile days which was a bit discouraging for me. We talked a bit about snow levels for the upcoming section and he told me about an alternate route to take if Glacier Peak is impassable.
I saw a group of 10 trail runners that said they saw a bear right near the trail a little ways behind me. I also saw a group of horseback riders which was kinda fun. The whole PCT is graded for equestrian use (but there are a lot of blowdowns right now on some sections) so it was cool to see some actual horses.
I was honestly having a pretty rough day though. I was bummed by the two guys that zoomed by me this morning. I feel like I’m a reasonably fit person but I was draaaagging today. My feet are in terrible condition. Swollen as heck. Tender as heck. Stiff as heck. I’m also just generally fatigued despite getting 9+ hours of sleep a night. When will my feet adapt??? Will I ever be able to hike as fast as other thru-hikers? My 2mph pace today was feeling hard by the end.
Because of the physical pain I was in and the lack of stunning scenery to distract me, I also got into a bit of an emotional spiral. I kept thinking “I am straight up not having a good time right now.” I had to work through why I’m here and what the point is. Which is tough to answer sometimes.
BUT, I have decided that a large reason for my unhappiness is the lack of hikers this year. I camped alone three nights in a row and have been eating my meals in silence. It gets lonely. But tonight I ended up at a campsite with the fast hiker that passed me this morning. He got here about three hours before me lol.
We have an actual campground to ourselves, outfitted with a bathroom, trashcans, bear vault (huge perk), and fire pits. The guy, Benjamin, made a fire for us while I started making my dinner. We got to chat for a couple hours and he even gave me tea. Human interaction is super underrated. Having someone to talk to definitely turned the day around for me.
So FINGERS CROSSED I start to meet more thru hikers. I just need a few around my speed!! I’m hoping that because I’m not stopping in trail towns I’ll start to catch up to some people. We shall see though. Let’s see if I can do 20 miles tomorrow, yeah?
Oh wait also! Before I forget: we saw two deer in our camp super close up. One was just a little baby and it had the cutest wiggly ears that were just flopping all over the place!!