September 10, Day 144: 2470.8-2494.6
Miles Hiked: 23.8
Gratitude of the Day: I’m thankful for Hunter “Pony Boy” Lee. He is always up for fun and has a heart of gold. One of the nicest persons I’ve ever met.
The day started out like a moody Washington day, there was sparse clouds around and at 7am when I left camp to start the day I walked primarily through forest with peekaboo glances at snow covered peaks. It wasn’t until I got to the top of the first climb that I got stellar views of Glacier Peak and the surrounding hills were telling me that fall is here with their vibrant reds and yellows.
I joined Zippy, Navi and Tissue for second breakfast on top of Grizzly Peak around 10:30, we’re all eating as much as we can because we over resupplied in Leavenworth and our packs are heavy. We decided to meet for lunch at the next lake, two climbs away, called Pear Lake, not sure why, it didn’t look like a pear nor the water taste pear like. We arrived around 12:30 and set out making lunch. By the time the whole group arrives the clouds had blown in and a small drizzle started. But this is Washington and a small drizzle usually means it’s not going to stop, and it didn’t. We had 10.5 miles to our intended camp at Lake Sally Ann and a huge climb. It drizzled the entire time, for 5 hours I hiked through it. I started with my rain jacket on but I was just getting sweaty from wearing it, so I ended up taking it off and draping it over my backpack, perhaps it’ll help keep things dry. The drizzle soaked my hiking shirt and my shorts got thoroughly wet from the blueberry bushes that hang over the trail.
By 6:15 I arrived at the lake and it looks like we weren’t the only group to stop here. There are tons of tents set up, my guess is people stopped when the rain started and didn’t hike through it like we did because there wasn’t this many people around us. We pitched our tents in groups. I set mine up and then immediately crawled in, stripping out of the wet clothes and putting on my dry thermals. I hung my shirt, shorts, socks and briefs around my tent, hopefully they’ll be somewhat dry in the morning. Then I made hot chocolate with a little whiskey to warm the bones. Tonight I cooked Mac and cheese and at in the coziness of my tent and sleeping quilt. I checked the weather on my Garmin and it looks like a forecast of chances of rain tomorrow too. Could be an interesting next couple of days if this drizzle continues. I knew I wouldn’t make it through Washington without the typical PNW rain. We’re still on pace to reach Canada by the 18-19.
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