Day 120

Horse camp to highway 140 campsite - 29.4 miles

Total - 1774.9 miles

Waking up early is getting harder and harder these days. I wake up annoyed that it’s fucking 5:30am again. After the annoyance wears off, I’m good and I start packing up. The lake was buzzing this morning with sounds. Bald eagles were chirping while dogs were barking all across the lake. Right before we left, a strange scream/bark? Started repeating. I initially thought it was a mountain lion as I hear they kinda sound like skin walkers and that’s what it kinda sounded like. It was a mix of that and a dog but more skinwalker lol. Did not make me thrilled to start hiking. It was a pretty easy day especially since it wasn’t hot. We cruised through the first 11 miles to get water that actually tasted good from a piped spring. We had a lil snack and sat down to rest the feet. I saw a Pileated woodpecker. I forget how big those things are. Today was a green tunnel so not many views until the end of the day which I’m not necessarily complaining about but it doesn’t make hiking that exciting. The deer with their babies added some flavor to the day which was quickly taken away by all the blowdowns we had to maneuver around. We pushed 8 miles to get to a cabin where the FarOut comments said there is a resident rat lol. Did not see it sadly. We have been leap frogging with tumbles for awhile now and she’s been hiking with shaman but after talking to her it seems like shaman is trying to ditch her. She implied it lol. Plus I know she won’t read the blogs so I will give the tea on this one. Shaman is in a poly relationship with his wife back home and Caleb caught tumbles and him cuddling about two or three weeks ago. But now shaman is doing 40 mile days to get to bend to go up to trail days in cascade locks so tumbles thinks he’s trying to ditch her because she’s also going but he never invited her into his plans or ride up there. Drama on trail that none of you care about besides me. Anyways, we talked to her for a lil before taking a quick nap in the shade before tackling the last ten miles of the day. I put music in for this one and it helped motivate me to get that shit done with. My knees have been hurting just out of tiredness becuase I don’t think my body is used to the weight. For the past couple of weeks I’ve only carried about 3-4 days worth of food but this time I went a lil crazy and bought 5-6 days with a big olive oil. I was feeling spendy in the Safeway. It works out that I did this but my joints are feeling the slight difference in weight over the same mileage. Marc is doing great after three weeks off. You would think he didn’t take the time off by his pace and the amount of miles we are crushing. We need to average 21 miles to reach Washington border in 20 days. I’m hoping we do it quicker as both Marc and I agree, we are done with this shit lol. I want a bed, food, and to sleep for a week straight. I am still enjoying it but it feels so close yet so far which is causing a lot of agony lol. I am trying not to look so far ahead and take it day by day but I just want to be in Washington. I looked at the mileage to the border like five times today and I need to stop myself as it’s torturous. Anyway, the last ten miles had a huge switch up from the green tunnel we had been hiking in. I shouldn’t have complained about the tunnel because then it switched to medium sized black rocks filled in with red lava rocks that causes you to slip bc they are the perfect size. Ten times more energy and it was up hill making it worse. But the views opened up making it somewhat worth it. I just really hate rocks right now. I cruised down the mountain after all the uphill, singing my lil songs, before hitting the highway where there was a big open spot for 10 tents probably next to a stream. We stopped 0.2 miles short but I think that’s okay. Immediately soaked and cleaned my nasty feet before starting dinner. Had a mid dinner shit, before eating the rest. Weird dinner tonight. Klara recommended adding gravy to my mash potatoes so it was mash potatoes, gravy, Sriracha, pepperoni, and cheese. Wierd mix of flavors but it tasted good. Thinking about eating that on the outside makes me want to gag. I ate some more biscoff cookies before feeling incredibly sick from all the food and water I drank causing me to have to lie down at 6:30pm. After fighting for my life, I brushed my teeth and got ready for bed lol.

I wrote down some of my little joys to try to take my mind off how miserable I was at the beginning of the day and remind myself why I am out here. It did work especially after I ate lol.

• new growth on pine trees or any tree for that matter as it looks like the trees got their nails done and are looking fab
• the sun hitting the tops of the trees during sunset or sunrise illuminating just one single part of them
• deer tracks in the dusty trail

There was trail magic earlier today but we were too quick so we didn’t get any. They posted on FarOut the time they would be there at the road but we got there three hours too early. Bummer. Would’ve been so nice.

We also passed a water source that smelled like straight sulfur. Everyone in FarOut warned not to drink it. I included a picture of it but it was a streamline of water in a concrete aquaduct? Idk I can’t think of the word right now but that might be it. Too tired to care. No cover or anything which might make sense to do as I know that shit was toxic.