Day 182

Day 182 (pct 72): 30 miles

We rushed to get to the bus station 15 minutes before it left at 6:30 and ending up waiting until 7 to get on the bus and head to government camp. I was in such a hurry I had to take my hot pockets to go. We took a quick peek inside timberline lodge and met some people heading out to thru hike the timberline trail. After a bit we met a forest service worker that was shocked to hear we were PCT hikers cause of how early we were. We’re gradually closing the gap on those ahead of us.

There was a really steep incline for a while later in the day but overall it was a pretty chill day...until later. We kept reading a lot of comments about how there were so many downed trees from a fire last year and were trying to mentally prepare ourselves with how awful it would be. We went about 4 miles after where they were supposed to start and didn’t have to cross one. I was feeling high and mighty. Life was good.

Then we came to a point where the workers stopped. They’ve been out cleaning it up lately but can only do so much at a time (especially cause it’s a wilderness area so they cannot use machines and have to cut everything down with handsaws). The next couple hours were not enjoyable. We spent a a while crawling over and under giant trees covering the trail. It was extremely slow going. Then as it was getting dark we didn’t want to do it without light so we went up to a ridge to find a place to camp but there was nothing up there. Then, instead of going backward and reconnecting with the trail which was covered in trees i convinced hammer we could ride the ridge for a bit and reconnect with the trail right where a campsite was. It was a good idea in theory. We then spent almost an hour going .4 miles. I was leading the way and was walking through brush up to my chest and higher. My legs were getting super cut up. I fell a good amount. Sometimes I’d step down off a log and just hope the ground was too much lower cause I couldn’t see it. There was a lot of pain. We eventually reconnected with the campsite and I decided to cowboy camp cause there were no bugs.

Song of the day: open letter-lil Wayne