Day 144

Mike Urich camp to camp site - 25 miles

Total - idk we are on another alternate lol

Woke up in the middle of the night to coyotes screaming for about 5 minutes straight. They were close though as I swear I could hear footsteps from a four legged animal on the trail next to us. Either that or in the meadow but it was in a 100 yards from us. Apparently there were some other noises that I didn’t wake up to including a mountain lion and elk in the morning. I’ve been wanting to hear a mountain lion as I hear it sounds like a skin walker or a girl screaming. I only want to hear it though when other people are also camping with me which last night were a ton. We got moving slowly this morning. I tried packing my pack differently with my bear can upright at the bottom. It kinda dug into my tail bone but not awful enough that I wouldn’t do it again. Marc and I cruised through the miles like usual. Mostly in a green forest with gradual climbs. We met chaps and stitious at some water and caught up with them. I really like them! I’ve said that about pretty much everybody but there are a few I haven’t liked but I won’t say their names lol. They told us about the elk and how they saw it this morning. After we left within 5 minutes we heard crashing through the forest which were two elk (one teenager and one mother). I am baffled how they didn’t tumble over on the steep hill and snap their legs. The rest of the day was kinda a blur. I turned on music because I wasn’t feeling it. Somehting about being so close to the border and finishing this trip and the anticipation is dampening my mood. It feels so close yet still so far. It’s about two weeks left. I know I am going to immediately miss it but I haven’t showered or did laundry or stayed at a town for a longer than an hour and a half so I’m getting a lil tired and less motivated. Plus the anticipation of having so much up and down in the coming miles is making me less estatic even if it’s pretty as I know I truly have to work for this shit. It’s not like it isn’t easy, I have the trail legs but I want it to be an easy finish. Though I will be more proud for a hard finish. Idk lots of emotions happening especially towards the end. These next two weeks will be the hardest for me mentally just with all the good and bad emotions. Anyways, my mood changed once I realized there was an alternate that cut off 7 miles and 5000 up and down. I brought up to Marc and we immediately agreed to do it. Puts us closer to snoqualmie pass for an earlier arrival and cuts off 1/3 of a day basically putting us closer to the border. We grabbed water 0.7 before and a whole bunch of people from the pervious nights camp showed up which I mentioned the alternative to. The girls agreed as well as smitty. Diddy and baby legs were not about it so they did the trail. The first mile of the road walk was glorious. We were chatting it up and doing Harry Potter trivia which I was horribly embarrassing at. After the bridge and the girls stopped for a late lunch it was all uphill on the hot sun. I was going for the shadows to protect my exposed legs and sweating my ass off. It would’ve been worse on trail but the road seemed way worse. It was graded fine but it felt like we were working for it. Finally we peaked, Marc, smitty, and I and we cruised to the water source that we found. Great flow and great tasting water. We stopped for a lil snack break where I introduced smitty to sweet tart ropes. His life was changed for the better. Then we got moving before a car came the other way. The minute it saw us it pulled a fast five point turn like he had a dead body he was trying to dispose and didn’t expect to see three dirty ass pct hikers walking the road. So incredibly strange. We pulled up on the only good looking campsite close to the road and called it a day. The guys went 0.3 to water and brought us back some so very kindly. I had started dinner which was horrid. Cheddar broccoli soup initially sounded great until it felt like I was just eating cheddar gelatin. So nasty that I stopped to just eat candy lol. Gonna dig a hole to dispose of it tomorrow or just do the walk of shame and carry the trash into town. Do not recommend whatsoever. The girls came strolling by, trying to decide if they wanted to stay or keep going. They decided to keep going and then 200 ft away flipped a coin, which turned into them turning around and setting up camp around us! I needed the feminine energy desperately. We all ate around a circle and chit chatted. It’s so nice to have some new faces at dinner. Makes it more interesting and way more fun. Marc is one of my besties out here but we can only talk about so much. The girls guessed our ages, initially thinking I was 26. I’ll take it mainly bc I always assume people are around my age when in reality they are like 27-29. Then it was time for bed lol. So incredibly tired and so ready to be done.

The entire time on the road walk we had service so you know I was walking and scrolling lol.

There are a ton of flies again trapped under my rain fly. I hate them. The white noise is not what I wanted. Flies are so fucking stupid. How do they get trapped so easily and literally just slam their head into any wall thinking they are gonna get out. I hope a spider gets a feast tonight.

Still so much smoke. Ash was raining down on my tent the entire time at dinner. The smoke cloud seems to be swelling more in one big line. Idk how else to describe it.