Day 127
August 23
zero!

I didn’t feel the need to get up super early for the continental breakfast in the hotel. When I made my way down to the basement room, I was surprised to find Ole! He told me that he and Trackmeat and Veggie had tried hiking out two days ago, but ended up at some bars and found themselves in no state to hike. So, they headed back across the bridge and took TrackMeat’s father’s offer to pay for a room here. He said they had spent the entire day watching movies and only left their room once to get ice cream! They were going to stay until check-out time today and get in a couple more movies. I told him that I wouldn’t be ready to leave until late in the afternoon, but wished I could zero. I was still so exhausted. I ate some cereal, yogurt, muffins, waffle, juice, and coffee and then headed back to my room. I thought about the words I had said out loud (I really want to take a zero) and realized that I needed to listen to myself. I had not had a day off from hiking since the 4th of July, which I could not believe!

I headed to the post office to pick up my resupply boxes, brought them back to my room, and then went to use the pool for a few minutes. I needed to let the front desk know if I was going to stay another night, so I didn’t have much time to linger here.
In the lobby, I found TrackMeat using the computer. We chatted for a few minutes and then I said this would probably be the last time I would see him. He didn’t think so and reminded me that they take a lot of time off. He also said that he never applied for his Canadian entrance permit and would be hiking back to Hart’s Pass from the border and would see me then.
I paid for another night and went back to my room to open my boxes. Ham had placed some of my pasta dinners inside my rolled up sleeping pad and the bags had broken. Now there was a mess of dried cheese and macaroni to clean up! After a quick nap, I headed back to the pub for lunch, stopping in the grocery store to see what they had first. There was not much there! I could now see why it was recommended to resupply across the river!
After lunch, I returned to my room, finally having a chance to give my backpack a bath! I also hand washed a lot of my clothes, including my knit hat and then hung everything up and hoped it would dry!
I took some time to write some postcards in the nice room with tables and windows overlooking the river. Wall-E and his friend were having a beer outside and his friend asked if I wanted my picture taken.

I went out to take a few pictures of the bridge, and then returned to the pub for dinner, eating alone for the third time there.

Back in my room, I texted a bit with Muk Muk. She had reunited with UB after his many adventures (getting airlifted out of Washington several days into his southbound attempt, starting back at Echo Lake after skipping a good chunk of the trail, carrying a fawn for seven miles to have it die soon after, and hiking huge miles to catch up with Muk Muk). When they reunited at Shelter Cove, he announced that he was in love, and Muk Muk said they planned on hiking together to the border.
While I was here, I also learned how Slack got his name after finding him on Facebook. I saw a picture of him slacklining across a huge abyss between two mountains and my jaw dropped. He was the one that UB had seen at Forrester Pass? I was stunned…
I felt like I had to get an early start tomorrow in order to start to make up for the miles I had hoped to do today. I now had only 25 days to hike the entire state of Washington, which is longer than the entire Colorado Trail! I was now committed to hiking through any weather system that came my way!