Distance hiked today: 24.9 miles / 40.1 km.
Yet another beautiful morning on trail. Waking up with the sunrise on the top of a mountain pass is hard to beat. Giggles' tent was collapsing since she lazily put the pegs in, and a slight breeze in the night pulled some out. I woke up around 2am to an obnoxiously loud FLAP FLAP FLAPFLAPFLAP as the loose tent blew around before she fixed it, only to have them come out again in the morning 😂.
We had a big uphill to do before lunch, but found a great shady spot to eat and take a long break. We met a woman doing a southbound unsupported FKT (Fastest Known Time) of the Washington section. Currently no woman has completed it unsupported, and this is her 3rd or 4th attempt. I love meeting people who are pushing the limits!
I had a grouse encounter, with one that wouldn't move off the trail and just made noises at me while staring me down.
The bushwacking continued in the afternoon with overgrown jungle-trail (pictured). There were a lot of massive blowdowns. Some we had to climb over multiple logs to get up on top of them and then send it off the other side, and others we had to go around. Note: do not make Giggles laugh mid-blowdown crossing or she will collapse and be unable to continue.
I've been eating these yellow/peach/pink coloured raspberries (depending how ripe they are), and someone told me they're Salmon Berries. Delicious.
We camped by a creek where other hikers left comments about a persistent mouse named Jerry that lives here. We hung our food, but Jerry still used my tent as a jungle gym, climbing up my guylines in the night. I hung my headlamp in my tent and left it on to deter him - a life hack from Rene who found out the mice don't like venturing into the light.
I did the math and figured out I've been eating less than 1800 calories per day with what I packed, while I'm burning 4000-6000. Greeeeat. The food was so heavy I didn't want to pack too much, and there were limited low carb options, but I've definitely underestimated. The bottle of mayo I went back to buy last-minute is definitely what's keeping me alive. Long live the mayo.
Total trail mileage: 2545.4 miles / 4095.5 km