July 29th, 2020
Mile 279.7 to Mile 305.5
I hiked 25.8 miles today!!! So crazy. Even though I started hiking at like 8:20. It took me about 12 hours, so I was going kind of speedy.
After sleeping in, I got to text Matt which was nice. I had a bit of a climb in the morning and I was in dire need of water. I was aiming for a spring less than a mile ahead but overshot it by about half a mile. And because I am lazy trash, I didnt turn around. I decided to just be parched for the next 2 miles until the next water source. Spoiler alert: I survived. But I definitely had to chug some water.
I was feeling good and cruised through the next several miles to the lunch spot I picked out by a creek. On the way, I passed Just Peter, the man I camped next to last night. He’s 71 and does about 10 miles a day.
I hiked around 10 miles before lunch and sat near a river to eat some cereal. I had service again so did some texting. Just Peter showed up and decided he would camp there even though it was only like 1:30. No idea what he does all afternoon but it explains why he’s asleep by 6pm.
I carried on, but had 11.8 miles coming up with no water sources. I took about 2L and set out. I passed a few NOBO hikers today, which seems early but I guess these people are going fast or started early. I met a few NOBO section hikers as well. From a couple groups I was able to determine that Katie, who I met before Red Pass, somehow got ahead of me and is roughly a day ahead. There also seems like there’s another sobo group a day or a half day ahead of me.
I’m trying to figure out if it’d be possible to catch them, but ~20 miles is a lot of ground to make up. But that did motivate me to pick up the pace. All the nobos I passed camped at this Mike Urich place and they seemed to think people would be around there so I mentally bookmarked it.
When I was getting close to the next water source, I started hearing all these gunshots. And they sounded pretty close. It honestly sounded like someone was just firing rounds into the open air of the valley. Very sketchy. I passed a NOBO girl that was very worried about being shot, so she kept yelling and whistling up the hill but I dont think the shooter heard. Luckily, I was not shot today.
I made it to the water source around 6:15 and had a dilemma. To go to the Mike Urich cabin or to sleep there. I had already hiked 20 miles but there was no one around and I’m over camping alone. I figured I could make it 4.7 miles to the cabin before sundown easily. I took off at 6:40 and was FLYING. Doing 3 mph and gunning it to the cabin. I made it in 90 min!!
The cabin itself is kinda cool but kinda creepy. It’s this little log cabin maintained by some snowmobiling group. It has a loft and a little wood burning fireplace. The downside is, there’s a road very close by. Some redneck guys arrived just before me and were checking it out. I did meet a couple section hikers camping outside and one woman sleeping in the cabin. I decided the cabin was a little gross and creepy so I pitched my tent by the men who were kind enough to let me sleep close to them because of the rednecks roaming around. Their names are Slip and Grey. Slip was surprised I didn’t have a trail name and off the top of his head offered me Smooth. I’m not sure why and I’m not sure I like it but I’ll sleep on it.
I went and cooked dinner on the porch of the hut and chatted with the woman there, Heather. She is also section hiking Washington, but going NOBO. The hut overlooks a meadow and I saw an elk out grazing under the moon. It was getting dark so I stashed some food in the cabin and went back to my tent. I’m feeling pretty good despite the long day, we’ll see how much ground I can cover tomorrow.