August 7, 2016

Ginnette Lake (mile 2290.3) to Highway 12 (mile 2292.3)

Miles: 2

We woke up this morning at 5:15am and were on the trail by 6. Andy slept well on his right side most of the night, avoiding the mountain on his air pad. 

We hiked behind Rambo and her dog Sadie as we descended to the highway. Sadie is really sweet and loves to play fetch. Rambo would throw the dog frisbee and Sadie would disappear into the foggy trees and come back wagging her tail, ready for more. This continued all the way to the trailhead. 

Once at the trailhead we changed into our town clothes consisting of shorts, fleeces and flip flops, and piled into the car. 

We can’t thank Rambo enough for offering to drive us into Olympia and to the REI there. 

She’s a thru hiker and knows how bad it can be when you experience gear failure on the trail. 

Before we started this hike Andy had read and heard the phrase “The trail provides” over and over again. But he never fully grasped it’s full meaning until today.

The trail provides solitude, hardship, compassion, friendship, love, peace, joy, simplicity and truth. 

The trail also connects us with people that can help us achieve our goals. All we have to do is show up, be courageous enough to ask for help and accept it. 

Before we left White Pass and drove to Olympia we stopped by the Inn next to the store to see Nemo.

Women’s appearances don’t change much on the trail, but men can change drastically. 

Nemo was clean shaven and ‘well put together’ in the desert, but now he had a bushy beard and epic hair – long, curly, salt and pepper hair. 

He was also slimmer. And more raw. We’re not sure if he’s lost his mind or if his true self has no filter any more. 

The trail changes us, whether we realize these changes taking place while we hike or after. We believe Nemo’s experiences in the Sierras have broken him open. 

He mentioned to us how we made the right decision to leave the Sierras when we did. That the river crossings were scary and almost took his life 3 times. 

“Some rivers we had to swim across, there was no other way. And when you got out of the water your body was limp because the water was so cold. I think I have P.T.S.D. Many hikers probably do. Every time we turned a corner and heard the sound of gushing water we froze. It was really scary.”

We wanted to chat more but had to go. 

It was so good seeing Nemo. He is still a character and always smiling. It felt good making time to see him this morning given everything we had to do. 

The trail teaches us over and over to be like water – to be flexible. It’s perfectly ok to have a plan in place, but being able adapt to the twists and turns of the trail eventually makes for a more enjoyable hike. 

And so Rambo drove us 1.5 hours to Olympia. REI was still closed when we got to town so we went to Rambo’s home where we uploaded blog posts, sent postcards and responded to our readers’ comments. 

We love comments. Thank you to everyone who makes the time to read our posts and leave comments. Your encouragement helps us when things get tough. 

We also thank those who recently contributed to our town fund. We really appreciate it!

We got to the REI, picked the best air pads from their limited stock (along with a pillow and socks for Andy) and returned our defective ones.

Rambo and her partner John then drove us back to Randall, a small town 45 minutes west of White Pass, enroute to their day hike destination.

We ate at the cafe, charged our phones, camera batteries and external battery, and made a hitch hiking sign. 

We stood at the side of the highway with our thumbs up smiling. At first no one stopped. Fifteen minutes later and still no ride, we decided to make a bigger sign (a passing motorists signaled ours was too small) and moved to a better location.

As it happened on Highway 62 near mile 220, Laurie managed to get a car to stop while Andy was working on making a bigger sign. 

A nice family from Yakima drove us to White Pass and dropped us off at the store. We thanked the generous family for the lift and headed in to pick up our resupply boxes.

Sitting inside the store were Toaster and Smudge. A southbounder had warned them of the potential storms we received today, prompting them to speed up and hike through the Goat Rocks in good weather. 

It was great seeing them again and catching up! They are wonderful people. 

We also met Gilligan and a few others. 

It was now 4pm and we still had to sort through our food, do laundry and ideally shower. We figured we could do it all and hike out by 6, but it would be rushed. 

Even if we hiked only 5 miles we wouldn’t get to camp til 8pm. Then we would need to set up the tent, eat and blog…It would be another late night. 

So we decided to get a room and chill. 

We bought snacks at the store, ate an extra trail dinner and watched the Olympics. 

Time really does fly in towns. Before we knew it it was 9pm. We packed our bags and blogged until midnight.

Tomorrow morning is going to hurt. But we suppose it’s all part of the adventure. 

Goodnight. 

Tonight we are grateful for our ability to be flexible and generous motorists.

Ginnette Lake

Sadie sleeping in Andy’s lap enroute to Olympia

Shuffles and Nemo lookin like real mountain men

August 5, 2016

Bushcamp (mile 2256.9) to bushcamp (mile 2273.8)

Miles: 16.9

Our total miles: 1867.5

The ground was bumpy since we were sleeping on tufts of grass but our inflatable pads made for a decent bed.

We bargained for another 5 minutes when the alarm went off at 5:15, then another 10 minutes. At 5:45 Andy deflated his pad- the hallmark sign that it is time to get moving. 

We have a system now. Andy stuffs his sleeping bag and rolls up his sleeping pad while Laurie soaks up the last few moments of coziness. 

Then Laurie does the same while Andy goes out to fetch our Ursacks. When he returns we either pack our own bags, or lately, Laurie packs both while Andy eats breakfast. Typically, in Andy’s absence, Laurie positions herself in the middle of the tent making it difficult for Andy to organize his things. So, either Laurie moves or she packs his bag.

We were on the trail around 7am. We have heard amazing things about the Goat Rocks Wilderness and couldn’t wait to see the beauty with our own eyes.

We walked through the forest, gathering wetness from the plants and spider webs in the face. The mosquitoes were in full form so we hiked with our bug nets on.

The mountains don’t give up their views that easily! 

We watched the ground as we walked to keep from stepping on frogs. They would leap out into and off of the trail, blending in well with be sand and dirt. At one point Andy stopped abruptly.

“Look!” He said as he pointed towards the ground. 

Thirty to fifty baby frogs hopped down and across the trail towards the uphill side. We have no idea where these frogs were going but there were lots of them traveling together in the same direction!

We walked down through the forest, inhaling the fresh morning air. As we crossed small creeks we could almost taste the dampness. 

We climbed up the west side of a hill, appreciating the shade provided by the hill itself. 

We passed a handful of SOBOs, some more friendly than others but all said we were in for a treat!

We caught glimpses of jagged dark rocks with patches of snow peering out above the hill to our right. On the left were mountains covered in green except for rocky out croppings. 

We hiked through meadows filled with wildflowers – lupine, paintbrush, columbine and many other white and yellow flowers littered the green hillside. 

As we crossed over a saddle our eyes widened. Before us was an expansive view of the aforementioned jagged peaks. A deep green valley extended to the right and we continued to traverse to the left up toward Cispus Pass.

We took an hour long lunch break at the pass, taking in the view on either side. We felt so fortunate to be here on a clear and sunny day. 

We dropped down, stopping frequently to soak up the views. We crossed many small streams and got water at one just below a waterfall.

We hiked on, passing many day hikers and overnighters heading into the area just below Cispus Pass.

We walked through more fields of wildflowers, these with bear grass added to the mix. The colors of the flowers stood out against the green grass and dark gray and brown mountains. We felt like we were walking through paradise.

We climbed up to a ridge and found a campsite on the edge. It had a rock wall built around it for protection from the wind. From our tent we had a fabulous view of Mt Adams and Mt St Helens. Within 10 ft either up or down the hill, we had a nice view of Mt Rainier too.

We sat on the rocks below our campsite and ate cheese and carrot cake cookies (thanks GoRaw). Andy sewed the newest hole in Laurie’s hat and her gloves as Laurie blogged.

We ate dinner on the same rocks watching the golden light grace the western face of Adams. Two days ago we watched a similar show from a different location – 36 miles south to be exact.

Today was pretty epic. Definitely the best day we have had on trail thus far. Many hikers say their favorite portion of the trail is either the Goat Rocks or the Sierra. We are enchanted with this area thus far and look forward to what tomorrow brings!

Tonight we are grateful for panaramic vistas and clear blue skies in Washington.

Looking back from Cispus Pass