Day 131

(Originally written on Saturday, September 12)

I woke up this morning looking forward to the biscuits and gravy that I knew awaited me. But first, I packed up all my gear and found that the condensation that was missing from the morning before had reappeared with a vengeance. I literally have never seen so much condensation in my life. When I opened the door of my tent, part of it laid flat on the ground. Where it was laying on the ground, the water actually pooled! There was no way I was going to get it dry before I needed to leave so I planned to spread it out while I ate lunch later. I did exactly that later and it worked great on not just my tent, but also my sleeping bag. Hopefully tomorrow morning won't be so wet.

I shouldn't have stayed for the biscuits and gravy, however. Not because they were bad, but because I knew it would take me a while to pull myself away! Sure enough, I didn't get out on the trail until 9. With the steep climbs ahead of me, I knew it was going to be a late night...or at least a long, rushed day.

The entire 25 miles I did today were--or seemed to be--uphill. There actually was a flat stretch about five miles long during the middle of the day and it made me feel like I was back in Oregon! I started out at about 1000' and finished just under 5000', so I definitely earned my dinner tonight!

I thought of something pretty cool today. If I am able to stick to my schedule, then I'll finish up on October 3. That means that as of this afternoon I have less than three weeks left on the trail! That really helped me mentally today because I was feeling like the miles have been dragging by. On several occasions I had to remind myself that this was only my second full day in Washington. Despite being in the last state on my journey, I still have a long way to go. So I can't allow myself to think I'm close to the end or else I just get frustrated.

Tomorrow I've got about 23 miles to get to the road where I'll hitch into Trout Lake. There I'll overnight, resupply for the three days to White Pass, then get back on the trail as soon as possible.