I did a terrible job dressing my airbed in the basement the previous night. I put on the fitted sheet and draped a sheet over it, then realized that what was left was not a blanket but one of those fitted topper pad things that’s supposed to go under the fitted sheet. I used it as a blanket anyway. When my 4am alarm went off, I was all tangled and half uncovered because nothing was tucked anywhere. I rearranged it all to get warm and slept in until 5.
The main goal for the morning was to get my blog posts all posted so you readers can keep getting your daily content without interruption until the end of the month. I got started on that a bit between showering and shaving, but at 7, I walked down to Steve’s Cafe for soon coffee and some huckleberry stuffed French toast with eggs and bacon. And that place was extremely efficient. What a Denny’s really should be. They were understaffed and even so my food came within minutes of my order and my mug was always full. (And the prices were great too.) As a result, I was extremely productive, I got all but one or two posts finished and posted while I waited.
These last few I finished up in the basement back at Casa de Heidt, wasting a bit of time watching short YouTube videos while pictures were uploading. When my phone battery got low, I plugged it in and started packing up my food resupply, cutting my new Tyvek to size and getting my pack as packed as I could.
Then, I lay back on the airbed to write the previous post that I had been too sleepy to write the night before.
When that one was done and uploaded, I got together some things that needed to be mailed home, borrowed the keys to the truck (nice truck Tyler!) and drove to Capitol building. For all I know, this was the Capitol building for the entire state, but all that was important to me was the post office in the main lobby. The clerk (post officer?) was running the place by herself and was super friendly and helpful. She saved me some money by pointing out that I could easily fit everything I was shipping in a bubble mailer as it was all stuff that can’t be crushed anyway. She gave me a label and taped down the corners without even being asked, then initiated a conversation about hiking solo, in groups, or with dogs. Not only was she extremely good at her job, she genuinely seemed to be enjoying herself. (The fact that office is only open 5 days a week, 5 hours a day may have something to do with it. It’s a lot easier to avoid stress when you’re not overworked.)
I swung by Mickey D’s on the way back because they were offering free fries with any purchase, and a quick Big Mac sounded nice. As a hiker, the 5+ hours since breakfast meant I was starving already no matter how filling it had been. I got told off for sitting in the mobile order parking space eating for too long even though there was an open one right next to me.
Back at the house, I first called my dad to check in. Then, I entered the final stages of getting ready to go, sunscreening up, filling up water bottles (nearly 6 gallons because it was 20 miles to the first water) l, putting on my gloves and calf sleeves and boots, washing my Nalgene (because I haven’t done that in at least a month), and borrowing a small knife to use for the week. (Thanks Caroline, you’re the best.) I took out all the trash I had created, hauled my pack upstairs, and then I was ready to go.
But first, Caroline got out the bathroom scale so I could weigh myself. Fully clothed and booted and after a meal, it weighed me at basically the same weight as I’d had in Silver City two months ago. I know I’ve lost fat and changed shape, but I guess I’ve built enough muscle to make up for it and kept my calorie intake higher. Great job me! Not wasting away at all this time!
Driving out, Caroline apologized that her little girl had woken up screaming with constipation and gas the night before. I had slept through it. And that she had been screaming from a stuffy nose that needed syringing that morning. I had been at breakfast during that. So basically any time I had seen her, she had been a totally calm and chill and largely unperturbed child. This is the best possible experience with babies.
We made it up to MacDonald Pass a bit after two and I was hiking by 2:20. The weather was great, mid-70s be breezy. Not much time left in the day to get any major miles, but I was resigned to that.
I put on some podcasts and cruised for a while up and down little hills through the national forest (in the midst, supposedly, of an active logging operation, and a much needed one, I think, though I didn’t see any trucks). Coming over the top of a mountain after a long climb, I found a shady spot under a tree just down the hill and took a long snack and drink break.
When I started down the hill again, the trail quickly evaporated into tall grass. I checked the map and learned I had been supposed to turn down an invisible side track at the top of the hill. I didn’t feel like climbing back up to find the right trail, thinking instead I could just work my way around the hillside to the trail. This proved to be quite difficult, as the other side of the hill was totally covered with blowdowns. They weren’t piled as high and hard to navigate as the Mt. Hood fiasco, and, in fact, finding the easiest path through and along them was kind of fun, but I expect I would have gotten to that point on trail some fifteen minutes faster by climbing up the hill and coming back down on the trail the right way.
Which is not to say the trail was free of blowdowns. There were still plenty crossing the trail all the way to the end if the descent.
When the trail leveled and started climbing again, it turned into a proper road, clearly a logging road. I saw a moose in the road ahead, but she ran off before I could get a video going. After a particularly steep road, I passed a little pullout where someone had fashioned a makeshift log bench next to a completely toppled old log cabin. I decided to stop there for supper. While I was getting ready to cook, another hiker passed me saying he had started hiking at four, nearly two hours after me, and yet said “I’m not very fast; you’ll probably see me again.” I don’t expect I will, actually.
After supper, I climbed the hill a bit further (like 100 yards maybe) and came to a well-used campsite beside another log cabin in the process of collapsing. It was 7:30 already. Getting treacherously close to sleepy time. I found the flattest spot in the area and made camp. Stopping later than usual didn’t throw off my schedule too much. I was already tucked inside and drifting off to sleep just a bit after 9.
I should add that the swelling of my eye went down throughout the day, but it was still there when I went to bed this night.
Trail miles: 7.3
Distance to I-90: 91.9 miles
