Day 138: Bleh

August 26: Mile 2175.14 Trout Creek to Mile 2198.19 Green Lake

The trail is not through with me yet, apparently. It was a total shit day. We had the lofty and admittedly nearly unattainable goal given the terrain of doing a 28 mile day which would have been a record for us. As I’m sure you can tell by my tone, it did not happen. Doing a 28 would have set us up perfectly to do 25 mile days into White Pass. Neglecting to do so would make finding established campsites around the 25 mile marks moving forward difficult. Since Washington is basically a rain forest (it’s actually been fairly dry so far), finding any kind of clear, flat space for a tent anywhere off the trail nearly impossible. In fact, finding any kind of flat space outside of established sites is simply nonexistent. So far this state has been so damn up and down that every bit of the trail is on a ridge. My point of saying all this is that pumping a 28 mile day out today would have made life so much easier.

Really the one main feature that trashed our goal was a 10 mile climb to a seemingly random high point with a nice view of Mt. Adams (We think. We really have no fucking clue. It could be Mt. Vesuvius for all I know.). The climb itself was actually pretty chill. It was mostly shallow and relatively easy going, but it just persisted on and on and on. When we stopped for lunch about half way up I felt like shit. When we stopped for water just passed the top of the climb I felt like shit. As we descended and realized we would be rolling into our 28 mile campsite too late and had to stop dour miles earlier I felt like shit. Honestly there wasn’t a single moment where I felt joy minus when I was lost in some podcast. Well, I’ve always said, it’s days like these that will get me to Canada. When you’re feeling good everything is easy, but it’s when you’re at your worst and still persist that success comes.