July 29.
In the morning I charged up my stuff and ate real fast and used the porta potty twice and used the grocery store phone to get a ride from a local trail angel. He was a gruff older white guy who had worked in forestry for 20 years then settled down in Trout Lake and gave hikers rides to and from the trail. I was a little intimidated by him but it was cool getting to know him and what he and others from the town did for hikers.
Got back on trail around 9 and hiked in mostly forest for a while. Not much to say about the scenery other than it was pretty evergreen forest, not much I haven’t seen before. Made it to the Indian Heaven Wilderness and there the scenery changed a bit to more chaparral dry dusty almost desert but it quickly turns back into forest. Passed by a bucket of trail magic that just had apples and raw baby potatoes. I don’t know why just raw baby potatoes.
Salty and Potter were ahead as indicated by a log book on one of the roads. They had planned to do 8 more miles the day before so they’re probably around half a day ahead. I caught up to the Barefoot Kid who was napping near a creek. He had gone into Packwood when I left White Pass but apparently had done a 40 mile the day before, going from Cispus Pass to Trout Lake road in a day. In boots. Ha. He told me Naps and Frank were ahead. At some point I must have passed them though I didn’t see them.
Had lunch at Mosquito Creek which actually didn’t have that many mosquitoes. Met a nobo named Lights Out and had lunch with him. Lights Out because he apparently didn’t know how strong a weed vape pen can be. There’s been a lot of pot smokers on the trail which I guess makes sense. Bunch of dirty hiker trash hippies hiking through 3 states where it’s legal.
The 10 miles or so before Blue Lakes were gradual uphill with a quick section through another burn area. Not as big as some of the previous ones but still with the same devastating beauty as before. The non-burn area was again covered in mosquitoes. There were some black flies before which weren’t too bad to deal with but the fucking mosquitoes are annoying as hell, though not as bad as around Walptus or Alpine Lakes. Still, I couldn’t really stop which meant I went way too long without water, not that there were any good sources to get from except for bug covered lakes. I finally donned my full bug suit, windshirt, windpants, and headnet though they still managed to bite through my gloves.
Made it to the lake and went up the hill to a designated campsite where the bugs were nice enough to let me have dinner outside my tent. Barefoot Kid showed up and we got water and ate and camped together. Nice to hang out and camp with someone else for a change. He’s an interesting kid from Palo Alto it turns out and has also done some Sierra backpacking.
Actually got service at the campsite and was able to message mup and Twig/Skybird/spatz who are all now hiking together again. Taylor was with them too but the three of them stopped at Trout Lake. So I am about a day ahead now though might see Taylor soon. I’ll definitely make it to Cascade Locks/Portland before them but hopefully I’ll be able to hike with them through Oregon.
58 miles left in Washington. Two 24s and a 10 probably though I may try to do more miles tomorrow. We will see.
Plants Outside 