Day 169 & 170 Miles 2350-2403

Day 169

Start: 2350.2 End: ? total 28/29

We slept next to the shelter that night and the next morning the trail angels were making breakfast! We woke up, packed up and had a few breakfast sandwiches and burritos before hitting the trail!

During breakfast, we heard of a shortcut from some of the other hikers. It would cut off 7 miles and around 5000 feet of elevation. However, it would mean 19ish miles of road walking. It was enticing as my friends would be there the next day and it would give us more time, however, road walking sucks. Mantis was excited about the opportunity to try to hitch hike into town to get even more rest but it wasn’t a given we would get picked up.

We left before the majority of the bubble but a lot of them quickly caught up. We did 5 miles to a water source where Hilldoggo, Guppy, Beer Run, Captain, Biscuit& Payload were all also getting water. It seemed like everyone except Beer Run and Captain would be taking the short cut. 

We did another 12 miles, stopped and had lunch, got more water then hopped on the road. It was a very narrow dirt road high in the mountains, I seriously doubted anyone would pass us. We’d have to walk many miles before I imagined we’d even see a car. Someone mentioned it being popular on weekends but it was a Thursday and deserted as could be. 

We walked down the dirt road for 11 or so miles and not one car passed us going down. One or two going up but nothing useful to us. It was pretty awful, a dry, dusty dirt road. Some of the views were pretty but logging and power lines intersected the steep switchback road down the mountain. 

Guppy, Biscuity and Hilldoggo started out just in front of us but they were all booking it. They took a break and we saw them again when they were passing us. They were shooting for a 31 mile day total. We had already walked more than we wanted to but kept going and started to look for campsites. 

We found a couple but they were a bit too close to the dusty road. Eventually we turned onto an old railroad that had been converted into a gravel bike trail. The sun was setting and our feet and legs were so tired. The pounding of a dirt road is somehow harder on the body than the trail.

We found a flat spot next to the rail trail and called it home for the night. That rail trail would take us another 7 miles into Snoqualamie Pass the next day. Unfortunately, we were still right next to the road so got a slight dusting every time a car drove by. We were so tired and didn’t want to put up our tent so we just hoped it wouldn’t rain.

Day 170

Start:? end: 2403.5 Total: 14

It was a rough morning, I woke up super sore from the day before. It had also rained a bit the night before. Not enough where we wanted to set up our tent but enough to get our sleeping bags wet.

We walked 7ish miles on a gravel railroad track. It was flat but that somehow made it worse. It was such tedious, monotonous walking. It felt like it took forever and the gravel felt so hard on my sore limbs. 

We eventually made it to a state park, a few miles before Snoqualamie Pass. The state park had a small building with showers and outlets so we cleaned up a bit and charged some things. 

After, we got a hitch to the pass with a plumber. I sat in the back on a bucket surrounded by tools and plumbing equipment. 

Upon arrival we went to the Dru Bru brewery and the back room was full of 15-20 hikers. We drank a beer and awaited my friends arrival. My college friend Chris and his wife Claire would be joining us for the next 70 mile stretch. 

Chris and Claire soon arrived and it was so good to see them and catch up. We chatted for a bit at the brewery before packing up our food and getting ready to set out. It is a limited resupply at Snoqualmie pass so they brought us a bunch of backpacking food. We packed our bags, drove to the trailhead where they could leave their car and then set off!

We had a 7 mile and 2500 foot climb to kick off that leg of the trip. We climbed to the top so it would make the rest of the days a bit easier. It passed easily as we all chatted the entire way up. We were surrounded by such beautiful mountains.

We climbed up and up and eventually passed over to the other side of them into a huge basin of new mountains. We went down the side and pitched our tents next to a lake.

We went for a swim before setting up our tents. Chris is a professional free diver so he brought his goggles and was swimming to the bottom. He found a piece of fishing line that someone had abandoned and started pulling on it to get it out of the water. To everyone’s surprise there was a fish hooked on to the end of the fishing line. The hook was lodged deep in the fish’s mouth. We considered eating it but it would have been tricky with just our camping stoves. Chris found a nearby fishermen (who hadn’t caught anything all day) and borrowed some plyers from him and set the fishy free.