Day 133

Campsite to timberline lodge to campsite - 27.9 miles

Total - 2125.5 miles

I woke up around 3:30am to a subtle voice echoing throughout the mountain. Initially I thought it was a guy talking to himself whil doing the oregon 24 he challenge but it never stopped. The same cadence and it sounded like he was repeating the same words over and over again. I ended up putting earbuds in and falling back to sleep. In the morning around 6am, it was still going on. I was utterly confused to what it could be. Did timberline lodge forget to turn off speakers? As I started hiking it hit me…it’s the hood to coast race and runners start at timberline lodge. That means runners have been going since 3:30am. What the actual fuck. Don’t they know there are tired PCTers on trail??!! Also why do you need an announcer that early. All I could think about was the poor people I had met the day before telling me how they planned to camp right behind timberline to get up late to go to the all you can eat buffet around 8. I know for a fact if I could hear the announcer two miles out that they got no sleep whatsoever. I hiked in to timberline intially planning not to go in but all my shit was dying so I had to charge. I sat around for an hour charging just enough to make it to cascade locks and chit chatted with the poor pct hikers who camped at timberline last night. No one got sleep. I felt so bad. After everyone left for breakfast I headed out. It was a gorgeous windy morning but I could tell the heat was coming. I passed a ton of timberline trail hikers and they all commented on how fast I was going. I have been hiking for over four months straight but it was nice to hear the compliments lol. It was a lot of up and downs all day. The elevation has came back. Oregon has been so flat that I’m now not used to the straight ups. They were small though. I cruised all day. This is my first time hiking truly alone without one of the guys. Same with camping without the guys. It’s peaceful but I do miss talking to at least someone throughout the day. I passed a ton of day hikers as well. They all smelled wonderful as usual. I stopped for lunch which was quick as again, I have no one to talk to. Just me and my own thoughts. I could do this for a good amount of time but I don’t think I would want to hike the whole trail alone. I know I would have opportunities to talk to other pct hikers but nothing beats talking to a person that you feel so utterly comfortable with. I don’t feel like I have to act a certain way for them to like me, or all nice and shit. It’s nice to be around people who know you and get you. That’s what I’m missing now after 24 hours of being alone LOL. It is nice though to truly be on your own schedule and stop when you wanna stop and do whatever you wanna do. It’s a mix bag of feelings right now. I continued up a steep uphill sweating my ass off. Then it was just slug all the way to camp. Don’t remember much as I was head down just wanna be horizontal mentality. Great views of hood all day but mostly in the trees in a green tunnel going up, down, up, down…repeat. I had to take a couple of snack breaks as my feet have been hurting all day. My shoes are falling apart. They have 1000 miles on them and have so many holes and my feet can tell that the shoes ain’t good anymore. I have new ones at home which I will get tomorrow. I grabbed some water before heading to camp. Leaf technology is amazing. The campsite isn’t marked on FarOut so I will be camping alone, all by myself. First time for everything. Too bad it’s the first time in 2125 miles and in the last four weeks of my adventure. Kinda ironic honestly but I’ve been saying I want to do it at least once. Here’s my opportunity. I ate two dinner tonight. Rice and chicken and then mash potatoes with tuna and added cheese. Mainly I just didn’t want to carry them anymkre especially since I’m going home tomorrow for a zero. I definitely need the calories as well. After dinner all by my lonesome, straight into bed. Very windy tonight so hopefully that goes down so I can sleep peacefully and get up early to make my way into town and cross into Washington! Last state best state!!!!!!

My tonsils and lymph nodes are slowly going down so that’s a win. I got texts from dad saying Marc looks extra happy going into the hot tub this morning. Very jealous.

Tried my anti chafe stick today for the first time. No chafe! I know you guys were dying to know.