Day 137

Mile 2190 to 2216, 26 miles

Cost: Camped, free

 

 
We were up at 6:30am, knowing that we had to make it 26 miles to a campsite or the next one was in 36… (Too far!)

We filled up with 2 litres of water at a piped spring after 2 miles. It was swarming with yellow jacket wasps and hornets, so it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience filtering water! 

  
Today was a much gentler day than the previous 2 with only one decent climb. 

        
Peaches made us a delicious percolated coffee at Blue Lake, thanks so much Peaches, it really hit the spot and helped us make it through the afternoon!

  
We got phone service while looking at that above view of a cloud-covered Mt Adams and saw that there’s a storm coming in this weekend with lots of rain and gale winds. The rain is terrific for Washington but hopefully the winds don’t make the fires any worse and hopefully there’s no lightning to go along with it – the cause of most of the current fires. I don’t mind the rain so much except when it’s over consecutive days which makes drying out a tent etc quite tricky. But we started thinking about where we would be on Saturday when the bad weather hits and we would be starting the Goat Rocks and Knife’s edge – 2 very scenic parts of the trail but completely exposed and probably not so much fun in a storm. We’ll try to check the forecast again tomorrow. 
  
   

At about 8pm we came across this sign saying that if the sign was out, then there is trail magic up the road. We were both starving and had been talking about what we were going to have for dinner for the last hour already! 

  

  
We walked up the road and started to hear voices, then we found this lot!

  
We met Geared Up who was responsible for the magic, he asked us if we were vegetarian, we both said no and a few minutes later we were eating pork chops, potato salad and washing it all down with beer. What a perfect ending to the day!! Geared Up, you’re amazing, thank you so much for your generosity. 

 
The campsite we were aiming for was less than half a mile from where the trail magic was so after a delicious dinner, we all put our headlamps on and walked the last few steps to set up camp.