Miles today: 15.6
Trail miles sum: 1842.5
Trail location: 2524.8
Elevation: 3603
Spinning on the turntable: Queen: Live at Wembley Stadium

I started the day with hiking through a multitude of water hazards.

So much mud

This is the trail! I’m trying to move from log to log, stone to stone, and dry spot to dry spot. I am marginally successful.

Creek bridge

The bridges leave me curious. How do the bridge building supplies end up here, so far from trail heads? Helicopter?

Mossy forest floor

The green moss covers (almost) the entire forest floor. It’s very soft when I place my hand on it.

Marmot!

I know other hikers are tired of the marmots, but I’m not.  I’m a wildlife junkie! I still enjoy the deer too!

It’s only 5PM and I’m tucked into my tent. Today was just a grueling uphill grind. I say that often but it’s true. Grueling. I expected that by this point of the trail I’d be rocketing up all the trail, all the time. Sadly, no.

It started to rain around 3PM and I took a hard look at the upcoming trail. Uphill. A big, overgrown, steep, five mile uphill. A Guthook comment said to expect to climb over trees, slide in the mud, and fall face first and “eat shit” several times while climbing the next hill. I opted to instead set up camp, read a book, and eat lentils. Tomorrow I’ll tackle that hill.

I believe the weather forecast has it raining every day now through the end of Washington. I see no reason to rush into the rain today. It’ll wait for me.

It’s official. I’m bored and lonely out here. I was chatting with the female of a m/f hiking duo and noticed a weird vibe from the guy. Unfortunately I’ve seen it before. The duo are hiking together but aren’t (maybe in the females eyes) a couple. The guy acts like they are in fact a couple and is a little possessive of the female. Good Lord. I was just looking for some chit chat. I moseyed on my way.

I bumped into a hiker the other day who knows Noelle from the trail. The hiker said to me “Oh yeah, I knew there was some older guy out here hiking but didn’t know it was you.” I guess, when compared to most of the hikers, I am the older guy.

My knees and my ankles sure feel old in this section!