Start: 0730 - near Gillette Lake
End: 1930 - Trout Creek
Miles (today): 26
Miles (cumulative): 2210 (1988 PCT, 149 alternate, 73 off)
So far the new shoes are much better than the old ones, so that's good.
Also good: Nick inadvertently stumbled upon a geocache while walking through camp this morning - it was under a log next to the tent and I can't believe we didn't see it yesterday! We didn't take anything out of it but we left some gum and signed the log book. :)
The geocache we stumbled upon
Another good thing: After only 2 miles of hiking I had the pleasure of meeting Emily, a section hiker. Emily was great to talk to and I walked away from her with a huge smile on my face. Not to long after that, I met Disciple, a yo-yo'er (i.e. He finished the trail going northbound and then turned around to hike it all over again southbound) - he and I chatted a bit. THEN I met a family of day hikers who has never met a thru-hiker before, so I talked with them for a while. Every interaction made me smile. :)
Emily
While I waited for Nick at Rock Creek per the plan (after hiking 15 miles), Emily showed up playing Deadmou5 on her speakers - it was great! We talked quite a bit more. She plans to hike the PCT next year - it would be cool if Nick and I happened to trail magic her!
Nick got to the creek at the same time as Roswell. I didn't get much of a chance to talk with Roswell, though, because as soon as Nick and I decided to hike another 10 miles I was off - I'm faster in the new shoes but still not faster than Nick.
After a few hours I ran into a note from Dirt Squirrel and Chili telling us to go off trail to look at some incredible view. It didn't look too far so I started walking up the steep incline. By the time I got to what I thought was the top, I was dismayed to see I had a lot more to go. I looked at my watch and realized if I didn't get back to the trail I wouldn't make it to camp before dark... So I abandoned the side trail and the (probably) incredible view. It was exciting to get a note from them, though!
a lovely note from Dirt Squirrel and Chili - it made me smile
Just as I was almost back to the trail from my little adventure, (it was was incredibly steep and I realized I was crazy for even going up as far as I did given the condition my feet and ankles are in), Nick caught up with and passed me. I attempted to keep pace with him but I simply couldn't keep up - even though the ibuprofen I took was helping, the incessant downhill was a bit rough on my feet. (How does he go so damn fast downhill?)
I barely made it to camp before dark, but that's ok because Nick already had the tent up and everything. It's becoming quite the nice trend. :)
The view of trout creek from our campsite
Along the trail:
I caught a glimpse of three mountains- Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood? I could be wrong about which ones they are
