Maybe it's because we had seen the trail at its (near) worst or maybe it's because we became fitter and stronger in nine days, but the middle section of this trip between I-90 and Highway 2 seemed super easy. In truth, I think it has more to do with the fact that we only took about five days and as such, required significantly less food (but more than we originally had planned since we counted calories and found that we were only giving ourselves about 2500 per day on a 4000-5000 calorie activity). Snickers bars abound, we started with a two-day detour around previously fire-damaged terrain, reminding us that there are some pretty awesome trails in the Cascades even off the Pacific Crest Trail. Although it was the shortest section, it produced some of the best scenery and the most pictures. This was supplemented by the fact that I learned that my camera has a pretty awesome panorama feature that I am still kicking myself for not figuring out for the first 100 miles. Some clouds on the first day gave us some eerie photos but after that, the weather was amazing once again. There was one stream crossing where I had to lasso a boulder with our nylon rope in order to cross safely, but other than that, everything went super smoothly - especially with our addition of trekking (skiing) poles. This of course allowed me to experience deep thought on the trail, which helped a lot in thinking about how I will run my class next year, but ultimately ended with various Disney songs getting stuck in my head, playing to the beat of my footsteps. And yes, I am totally embarrassed about that.
At the section's end we reached Stevens Pass ski resort where we had to hitchhike to a town about 20 miles away, and this being my first ever hitchhiking experience, I was a little worried that our reliance that nice, sane people would pick us up was not a smart move; after all, we mailed all of our resupplying food to Baring, a small town of only a couple hundred, with plans to stay at a local "hiker haven." To my surprise, we were picked up within five minutes by some other Washington hikers, very nice and very sane. At least at that point I would have said hitchhiking is one of the easiest, coolest things ever. More on that in the next post. In the meantime, we were dropped off at the Baring general store/restaurant/post office and spent the remainder of the day either there for multiple meals or across the street at the Dinsmore's bunkhouse for hikers. By this point, the multiple groups and individuals that were en route to Mexico along the trail all advertised their place as one to stop at. We had to stop anyway to resupply with food, and these people are gracious enough to check their P.O. Box every single day for packages of hiker food to be held until their owners arrive. The people were super nice and we'll call it a "simple" town. When they found out we were teachers, they talked all about their local graduating high school class of four - simply because that's all the seniors they had - and I just had to laugh thinking of how different it would be. I also wonder who gets a better education: the students of Baring, WA or the students of Richmond, CA?
The photos describe the trail best, so I'll leave you with my favorites:
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