Day 136, Icarus

Part 5, Washington, Day 136

Icarus

Miles: 23.43

Total Miles: 2381.81

The rain woke me up at 2am and I dashed out if my tent to put my backpack inside my tent before it got soaked. The rain was early. At 5:30am, it was lightly raining and pretty windy. I rain proofed my pack and packed it up quickly. I hiked into the rain at 6:45.

I captured some of the mushrooms I've been seeing. Maybe one of you can help me identify them.

The forest was dark this morning. I have a bad feeling that the rest of my hike will be dark, wet, and cold. 

The trail was ugly today. I got a few good images, but the trail basically went across countless logging roads and power line areas, in the rain, for 13 hours. 

I crossed through Tacoma Pass. It was just a dirt road. 

The trail was also very difficult today. It was loaded with PUDS (pointless ups and downs). I'd go uphill for an hour and straight downhill, and the whole time the trail would be paralleling a straight dirt road. Very frustrating..

These mushrooms looked like pancakes. 

I had to dig deep to find pictures worth taking. 

I didn't see any hikers today again. During one climb, I stopped and heard bass from a car stereo up on a dirt road. I hustled up their, just hoping to talk to somebody, but the car was gone. 

I walked under several clear cuts that housed high voltage power lines. Here's some metal ones...

Here's some wood ones... (long sigh)

Do I sound bored? At around noon I made it to Stampede Pass.

There was a porta-potty here that looked brand new. After an inspection, I determined that it was quite clean. I had cell service so I sat inside and locked the door and surfed the net on my phone for a bit. I didn't use the privy for bathroom purposes, I just needed a break from the trail.

This was the best part of my day... 

That should tell you how much the hike sucked today. I was without water for most of the day, but found a nice spring in the afternoon. 

The afternoon hike was more of the same, but I listened to my iPod to help fill the void. I have an iPod nano; it's a complete piece of shit. This is no exaggeration; the battery life, fully charged, is 2-3 hours, so I have to ration my music time.

Here's some more fungi.

My dizziness was out of control today. I stumbled on many roots and rocks. It's getting worse each day. On days like today, I feel like an obsessed masochist. Why am I still out here if I'm not having fun? I feel like Captain Ahab chasing his White Whale. 

These signs were posted on every other tree. One or two would've done the trick:

I crossed through Yakima Pass, the one with the crappy sign:

I thought this image was interesting:

I got to Mirror Lake and set up my tent, even though it was only 4:30. It started raining and I'm tired as hell. This is the earliest I've camped, but it puts me only 10 miles from Interstate 90. 

This section is, by far, the biggest bubble I've hiked in. I haven't seen one other northbound thru hiker, and only a handful of southbound hikers. Where is everybody? 

There is a band of squirrels here that are every entertaining to watch. They're after my food. I dropped some chips and one of them moved in.

I'm thankful that I get a zero soon. I got into my tent and immediately felt sick. I'm stressed out and feel weak. I'm ready to finish this hike, and I look forward to that, but as of now, I still don't know how I'll finish. I'm hoping it will be a glorious Canadian finish. And now, a solid week of rain... Great.