Day 137

Trail miles: 19.7

Total: 2315.6

I had a random thought going up the hill today. When I turned the corner and saw the trail was very steep coming up, I made a sad frowny face. What if the trail was like roller coasters and took photos of moments like that? Just turn a corner and your reaction was captured on camera.

Well we didn’t make it out of the gas station as early as I originally thought the night before. Raechel wanted to charge her external charger more and Lifeguard and I had a lot of wet clothes still from sink laundry that we wanted to throw in the dryer. The store opened at 8:00am. We got to the front of the store around 6:30am and surprisingly there was only two other people there waiting. They were there to get their names on the shower list first. By the time it was 8:00am, there were around 20 hikers waiting outside. When the doors opened, no one was mindful of the people who got there first. We ran to the front to get our spot in line and told the couple that was there first to jump in front of us. Some rude lady was first who definitely got there late and just stood closest to the door. Then she tried changing the dials on the washer when the dials were taped and there was clearly a post-it saying not to change the settings. It really bothers me when people are so selfish and aren’t aware of their surroundings. Anyway, we weren’t allowed to just use the dryer, so we used it anyway. No one was using it because the first person of the day’s clothes was still in the laundry. So we just threw it in the dryer and started it. I got a breakfast sandwich and a hot mocha. It’s been so cold here so we sat inside to eat. The coffee was so good! We were all surprised since it was gas station coffee. I was really happy with my breakfast, but the bar is pretty low. As we were walking the road back to the trail, some man told us we had fat packs! So now we are called the Fat Pack 5. He was running around with a trail runner very on, excited to see his wife who is hiking the trail. We got to the trail around 9:30am and didn’t make it very far when someone let us pet their dogs and horses! They were really nice and loved talking to us about the trail and their horse adventures. Then we finally got started hiking. We hit mile 2300! This will be our last milestone before trail days. I felt pretty good today. At the 2300 marker, I changed the insoles of my shoes to the Super Feet that I bought in Bend. I think for the most part they helped. At the top of our big climb of the day, we entered Mt Rainer National Park! Another one to add to the list. The mountain was out today and it was beautiful! I think it’s getting closer! I took lots of photos at the top. I try to remind myself that I need to stop and use it since I’m carrying it. And these views are worth capturing of course. We made good use of the space at camp and made all the tents fit.