Day 128, The Grind

Part 5, Washington, Day 128

The Grind

Miles: 26.3

Total Miles: 2205.75

Today was a lousy day. My body is breaking down and nature is threatening to end my hike.

I woke up early at 5am and Houdini and I were walking at 5:45. We left early because Legend made us breakfast! What a great guy. 

That's a trail breakfast right there. 

This helped me save food, as I'm already running low with over 100 miles until my next resupply. After a few pancakes, we said bye to Legend and started hiking at 7 am. 

Panther creek was the last water for 11 miles.

The day started with a brutal 3,000 foot, 9 mile climb. 

It was very cool this morning, and the climb went by pretty fast. It took nearly 4 hours, but I felt ok. I still hiked only 8 miles by 10am; much slower than Oregon. 

The trail rarely had views today, but when the trail opened up, the views were good.

I had internet service at the summit, and stopped to check the fire news. I saw Mt. Hood peeking out in the south.

I got some bad news. The trail is completely shut down in the North. There are no detours because the roads are all closed. Nobody is hiking to Canada because of the wildfires. I'm still a couple weeks away from there, but the news was hard to take. I have no idea what to do, so I'm just gonna hike for 200 more miles and hope the trail opens. In 200 miles at Snoqualmie Pass, I must make a decision, or rather, the fires will decide for me. Bummer. 

I did get my first view of Mt. Adams.

You can see a fire burning on the lower right side. 

I found Houdini at the water source. The water came in through this pipe:

This area is popular for gatherers.

I needed water, and found Sheep Lake dry:

And Green Lake was also dry:

My body sucked today. I'm still mysteriously sick. The dizziness is bad, my throat is swollen, and I have no energy. The hike was a grind all day. I got some more views of Mt. Hood.

You can see the smoke below.

I was getting closer to Mt. Adams. Here's a good look at the fire burning on the southeast side:

My quad started feeling tight again during the day's second big climb. I was really struggling. 

I passed Blue Lake. I wanted to camp here, but it was too windy and cold.

Instead, I limped on for 3 miles.

I finally made it to Bear Lake. Houdini was there setting up his camp. It was very cold. Strange, since last night was oppressively hot. 

I ate ramen even though I'm so hungry. I don't have enough food, so this completely sucks. The trail is crap lately, and my body hurts. Let's hope things pick up.