Day 146
September 11
mile 2541.6-2565.5
23.9 miles

Although I had a restless night in which I barely slept (even after an exhausting 25 mile day), I woke with an unusual feeling of ease. The sun was rising across the mountains from which my tent faced, and although I was too tired to put on my glasses, I watched the light appear. After giving myself a few extra minutes to rest, I got up at 6:26 and felt like things were going to go smoothly today. (I don’t know why).

I started walking at 7:39, beginning the 3,500 foot descent to the Suiattle River in eight miles. The glare of the sun and the overgrown path made it hard to see where I was stepping and there were a lot of obstacles in my way! The trail was extremely muddy and slippery here, making it very easy to fall, and there were also big stones in the path which were easy to trip on.

I moved very slowly and grew frustrated at my pace. Maybe it wasn’t going to be such a good day after all!
As I made it back into the forest, I again encountered many huge fallen trees across the trail. I felt like this section of trail was one of the hardest, most demanding, and exhausting on the entire hike!

I saw a father and son packing up their camp at 9:14 and felt envious of their slow start. By 10am, I needed to take a snack break along the side of the trail. I had only hiked 4.7 miles so far! This year, the trail was made 3 miles longer with the repair of the bridge across the Suiattle River. While the extra miles were fairly easy, they also felt like they were taking forever! I came to a washed out part of the trail that was composed of loose silt and gravel and had to carefully find a way through it.

In the past few days, I found myself yawning a lot as I hiked. I felt so tired!

After finally crossing the river, I had to climb back up 3,600 feet. Luckily, I found a nice little waterfall in the woods to collect water for the day and to make an ice coffee. My pace picked up as I climbed and I began to feel better about my progress. I was also starting to feel more peaceful in general. I was glad that I didn’t have to worry about anymore resupply interactions, and that I didn’t need anything from anyone right now. I also felt like I had finally gotten over all of the people in my life that had been holding me at a distance. At last, I was feeling the sense of peace that I had been wanting to feel in Washington. Although my intestines were still acting up and causing me problems, I felt internally strong and only wanted to cultivate relationships that were healthy, giving, and loving.
A man heading south passed by without wanting to interact at all. Further on, I came across two girls who were nimbly scrambling across the fallen trees on the trail as if there were no obstacles in their way. I wished it was as easy for me!
I found a fallen log to sit on and snack in the forest before continuing the climb. Eventually, I found myself in Sierra-like terrain once again, with snowy mountains around me.

I descended through loose rock, in a basin with granite cliffs rising up on all sides, and then climbed up to another ridge. When I found a little cascade of water along the trail, I stopped to collect and filter some. Suddenly, I was startled by a voice. “Oh! A person!”, the man said. I hadn’t seen anyone in a long time and thought I was alone up here. Apparently, he did, too! He told me that I looked spacey and said that’s what people said thru-hikers looked like: spacey, thin, and harried. I didn’t appreciate his description. I was filtering water and zoning out after a long day. What did he want me to look like? I moved over so he could get into the one little spot where it was possible to collect water. He then told me that there were a couple of campsites “aways down”. He said “they” were camped at the nearby site. Thanks…
He returned to his campsite as I continued to filter my water. When I passed by, I saw them collecting berries from the bushes.

I descended from the ridge, crossing over several streams, and then reached another broken bridge.

I knew there was a campsite coming up, and when I smelled the smoke of a forest fire, suspected there was already someone camping where I intended to stay. I saw a sign at the intersection of the side path to the site and was dismayed to find that it climbed steeply. It was also longer than I had wished it to be! When I arrived, I found a young guy eating his dinner. I asked if he minded if I stayed here as well. He had his tent set up in the main camping space but pointed out a couple of smaller spaces in the area. None of them looked big enough to stake my tent. “It’s not going to rain tonight, right?”. He looked up at the sky and shook his head. I decided that I would cowboy camp and picked my spot. It was already getting dark in the woods although it wasn’t even 7:30. The guy took his things away from the fire ring and hung out by his tent. He had a much nicer view of the surrounding cliffs.

Once I set up my sleeping bag, I boiled water for my dinner, cleaned up, and put on my warm clothes.
As I ate my dinner, I was surprised to see the guy walk by with his sleeping bag and pad and a few other things in his arms! Where was he going? He left his tent behind. I wondered if I had disturbed his private space and felt guilty. But where else was I supposed to go? A bold frog suddenly came hopping towards me, landing right on my sleeping bag and heading towards my face! I swatted it away with my phone. Several seconds later, it hopped back onto my groundcloth and sleeping bag again! This time I used my hiking pole to shoo it away! The bugs had also come out! I hoped they weren’t going to bother me all night long!
The boy never came back. I found it hard to sleep because I felt bad about disturbing him.
During the night, I was awoken by the sound of a crashing tree! It was very loud and I felt shaken by it. Afterwards, I started to wonder if it had fallen on the boy! I imagined having to walk over his crushed body on my way back down to the trail.