9.4.18. 17.1 miles.

I woke up to my alarm at 5:45 and immediately needed to go to the bathroom, so I took care of that and then crawled back into my quilt bc it was so cold this morning! I bundled up and threw my hiking clothes into the foot box to warm them up a little before putting them on. I finally finished getting ready and put my thermal layer on as well, wearing it this morning until 10! It was just pretty cold.

The trail this morning was mostly downhill with some minimal climbing. It was pretty too. I walked through some meadow-y areas in between forests. I had about 17 miles to do until Trout Lake, and I tried to make it to the 12:30 shuttle to town, but I missed it by 15 minutes. If only I didn’t have to pee and filter water, I’d probably have made it!

After my water filtering stop, there was a steep 1,500 ft climb and then a steep descent to the road. When I got there, I stuck my thumb out and only had to wait about 10 minutes. A lovely young family on a camping vacation in their huge Winnebago RV picked me up! They live in Washington and had so many questions about the PCT. They thought it was so cool and wished me luck on the rest of my journey.

I got dropped off right at the general store, and immediately reconnected with Hot Pants, the only person I knew pre-trail on this hike! We met on a Bay Area women’s hiking group site and went hiking before the trail, talking about gear and all kinds of stuff. Hot Pants is so easy to talk to and it was really nice seeing a familiar face. We got lunch and she showed me where everything was in town. I then took a shower at the campground, and did my laundry. Unfortunately, I am missing a sock. I’m hoping it turns up in someone else’s laundry tomorrow, as there was another load put in right after mine.

After chores, we hung out some more and I was able to resolve my audiobook issue. We set up our tents on the lawn behind the store, then we got dinner and huckleberry pie at the diner. After dinner, it was time to crawl into our tents. We put our next to each other so we could talk and we did until 10 pm! I couldn’t believe we were up so late, but it was time to sleep. I’m hiking out tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to this next section of trail!