July 25th, 2020
Mile 206.1 to Mile 227.8
I woke up at the usual time and snuck out this morning trying not to wake Peter. I saw a guy fishing while I was packing up. I hope he has more success than we did.
The first few miles today were super relaxing and I was feeling good. At a river crossing I took my shoes off and soaked my feet. These new shoes have been super great for my feet!! They’re not nearly as sore or swollen as they were in the other shoes. Although maybe my feet are just getting used to the walking. But I think all the cushion helps.
I had a pretty long ascent up towards Cathedral Peak. I passed a decent amount of day hikers and section hikers today. One woman asked if I was a thruhiker and offered me her PB&J sandwich. I declined but later I kinda wanted it.
At the top of the climb I ate some leftover soup that I couldn’t finish the night before for dinner. Then it was a pretty long descent down to Deep Lake (dumbest name ever). The lake was really pretty though and I did consider hopping in. I rested there briefly before continuing on.
The next part of the trail descended even further into a valley. I don’t really like going down so low in elevation because it gets pretty hot, especially in the afternoon. The trail wrapped around Waptus Lake without actually getting close enough to see it. I recognized the lake’s name but couldn’t place where I had heard it. Later, I passed a trail junction for Spade Lake and remembered that Emma, Maya, and I had considered going there over a holiday weekend. We chose Spectacle Lake instead, which I’ll be passing tomorrow.
In the valley I noticed some more huckleberries and sure enough, I saw another bear. This was the largest bear I’ve seen so far and it was a brown color. It saw me first and ran a bit up a hill to get away. The thing about bears is, they are not sneaky. They are actually quite loud and clumsy. I froze and we kind of stared at each other for a second. The bear was pretty far off so I wasn’t terrified but definitely spooked. It seemed curious and watched me as a backed away along the trail. Once out of sight I picked up the pace to get out of there and began banging my poles and shouting “Hello, bears!” again.
I saw a couple 15 minutes later that was stopping for the night and told them about the bear. I’m not sure if that was the right move because I don’t want to have scared them for no reason but hopefully they’ll store their food properly.
I pushed on because I wanted to get higher in elevation to get away from any more bears. But, I was pretty nervous after that and kept worrying about bears and mountain lions. I had another couple miles to go when I saw a tent site near an overlook. I hopped on the opportunity to end the day early and set up camp. I had a lovely view of Waptus Lake and a sunset as I ate dinner and got ready for bed.
The mornings are always less scary than the evenings, so hopefully I can be calm again in the morning.