Day 91: Views of Mt Ranier

The views today were special. The morning started with a 2,500 foot climb that culminated with absolutely beautiful views of Mt Rainer in the distance. There must be a fire in the area because the air was hazy, but the haze added this almost pink layer to the mountain. I kept tripping over myself because I was admiring the view instead of watching the trail. 

It’s hard to explain what a longer mileage day on trail looks like, but here’s a shot: 

• Wake up at 5:20

• Spend 10 minutes eating breakfast

• Begin packing my bag, which is essentially shoving things in smaller bags which then get shoved in the larger bag.

• Although I normally don’t poop at camp, the call of the wild came early this morning 

• Get out of my tent, immediately put on bug spray, and as fast as possible tear down my tent and get it in my backpack so I can start walking and escape the mosquitos 

• Start walking at 6:02 am

I won’t bore you with the rest of the details, but here’s a quick summary. We stopped walking to set up camp shortly before 7pm after covering 36 miles. This breaks down to 11 hours and 15 minutes of walking and 1 hour and 33 minutes of stopping time. 

The stopping time is rarely rest though. My break time today looked something like: 

• Stopped in an area of cell phone signal to call my parents. Talk for 4 minutes and then lose service 

• Hike 10 minutes to a spot with better service to call them back and talk for 22 minutes 

• Stop to poop, about 3 minutes

• Stop to quickly filter water, about 5 minutes 

• Stop to filter water, about 5 minutes 

• Stop to poop, about 4 minutes 

• Stop at a river to filter water and take a break, 25 minutes 

• The rest of the unaccounted for time includes pee breaks or miscellaneous stops. 

The final miles to camp were a mosquito madhouse. In the last two miles, I started counting how many mosquitos i killed that landed on my hands but lost count after 25. Wild. I set my tent perhaps the fastest I’ve done on trail and will not be leaving it the rest of the night. I’ve decided to dedicate a water bottle as a pee bottle so as not to let any of those bloodsuckers in my tent. Once I get to camp, it goes something like this:

• 2-10 minutes to set up tent (depending on how many mosquitos and how tired I am)

• A minute to boil water to then cook dinner, which then cooks for 5ish minutes

• Wet wipe down my legs and other important areas to then change into my sleeping clothes 

• Eat dinner 

• Filter 2 L of water to start the next day with 

• Clean pot and then pour overnight oats into pot. Add water and mix around so it’s ready to eat in the morning. 

• Inflate sleeping pad 

• Journal for the day 

• Separate tomorrow’s food so it can easily go in the hip belt pockets

• Brush my teeth

• Stretch then lay down to sleep, hopefully before 9. 

The last comment I have about long days on trail is that each day feels like a lifetime. It’s hard to imagine while walking through hordes of mosquitos that the same day I was awestruck by a beautiful mountain off in the distance in the morning. My energy levels similarly ebb and flow, going from hyper, fast hiking to slow, counting-every-step-until-camp hiking. But on the bright side, what is certain each day is that I work on developing those grit and determination muscles to keep on pushing! 

Miles: 35.7

Total Miles: 2,362