Day 28: Oh, to hike.
I am anxious to leave town. I wake up at 5:30, then 6, then 7 and still no one else is awake. I decide to get coffee.
At the coffee shop I stare out the window. I feel like I’ve been laying in bed for days and I am bored of myself. I am irritable today, tired of town and resting and spending money. It is very stressful to hike with limited finances, but it is a stress I chose. I try not to beat myself up.
Back at the Inn, I shower. I try to rinse my bad attitude away, use my little bottle of Doctor Bronner's and shave my legs. At least I’m not hungry anymore? After two and a half days of eating as much as I possibly can and moving very little, I no longer feel ravenous and feral. I grab onto that positive thought and cling to it like a raft boat.
After the shower, I am cleansed. Bogwitch and Carrot are awake, eating and scrolling and packing up their bags. We finish our morning chores and find a hitch within ten minutes, a nice lady who says their family moved to Packwood because there aren’t any cops. She’s a baker and is making rice crispy treats en masse for a high school kid's cross country running camp. She says they eat so many it borders on disgusting, but she looks really proud when she says it.
White pass is a frenzy of resupply unboxing, fries, and other hikers. On trail, it’s easy to feel like their aren’t many others out here, but at the white pass Chevron Station, the truth comes out. There are a LOT of us, and we’re all here, marveling at the food we’ve sent ourselves and the discarded food we rescue from the hiker box.
Finally, we hike. It’s noon already, usually a recipe for a hard hiking day for me, but I’m so happy to be back on trail that I feel gloriously lighthearted. The terrain is gentle sun dappled forest, then a gorgeous exposed ridge with golden sun but hardly any heat. We go up six miles, we go down six miles. I feel happy and chatty and above all my muscles feel FULL of glycogen. God bless carbs! and bless the vegan and gluten free burgers and pizza available at white pass. I honestly believe having a giant influx of calories over my rest days is saving my ass right now and I am grateful, grateful, grateful.
My tendon doesn’t hurt at all. Carrot is too full to finish her dinner and I get to eat the cast offs, which pleases me greatly.
This section of the Pacific Crest Trail is on uncededYakama land.