Day 150: Family Reunion II
September 7, 2017
Mile 2461.70 Skykomish, WA to Mile 2465.66 Campsite
Ah, there’s nothing like waking up in a big comfy bed. Better yet, the hotel is situated near some train tracks and the sound of a train horn in the night always seems to comfort me. I grew up being able to hear the distant sounds of trains as I fell asleep so I guess I’ve always enjoyed being able to hear that as I rest.
We woke up “late” in the morning. By late I mean a little after 7:00 and I collected our clothes to take to the laundromat. The small town was quiet, cool, and damp as I walked to the laundry facility down the block. Everything opens late hear and there isn’t much in the way of stores and businesses so I was one of the only people up and about. It almost felt more peaceful and serene than hiking through the forest early in the morning like we do on the trail. It’s crazy how my perception has changed now that my everyday life is hiking in the wilderness. Normally a quiet walk in the woods make me feel this way, but now the woods seem busy because of my need to get somewhere and early morning strolls through towns feel nice and calm.
While I went to do laundry, Glowworm texted Cougar and Dr. McDirty expressing our desire to meet up with them at some point before we all go to our respective homes and as it turns out, they were at Stevens Pass and were about to hitch into Skykomish! We’ve been trailing them by about three days since Chester and finally caught up with them! So once they got into town we had breakfast with them at the Cascadia Inn Cafe downstairs from our room and greeted each other with hugs and smiles as Dr. McDirty and I marveled at the other’s facial hair that is now much more substantial since we last saw each other.
The drama of the day came in the form of our resupply boxes not yet arriving in town. We would have had to either wait until sometime tomorrow or buy all of our food in town and just forward our boxes home. Fortunately, the hiker box at the Inn was stock full of dinners and we were able to at least get those purchased, but the rest we had to buy at the store. On top of that, the store was out of fuel so for this section we’re going to have to cold soak all of our pasta and mashed potatoes. Ugh.
The day was salvaged by the fact that everyone we met in this town was so kind to us. The owner of the Inn basically gave us a run down of all of the town’s amenities for us hikers when we checked in, the store owner the checked us out was also so tenderly kind to us when we were frantically trying to resupply after realizing our packages weren’t there. It really means so much to us.
We were only able to do about four miles after leaving town, but should only have four more days into Stehekin, our final town. Ready to finish this off with a bang!
