Day 2, Aug. 27, 2014
Woke up at 6:22 a.m. but
didn’t get out of the tent for another hour. Eight hikers passed my campsite
while I was fixing breakfast and packing up. Got started just before 9 a.m.
These other hikers must get up awfully early – and I must get up awfully late.
Leisurely pace on a mostly
flat or descending trail. Mostly in forest with several ponds along the trail.
Crossed two streams with good running water. Made it to Road 115 before 11
a.m., not quite four miles probably. A bit slow but I think I only have four
more miles to where I will wait for John. Lunch at the road crossing: BLT with
no mayo – not a good place for food poisoning.
Walked another hour and came
to a second road. A hiker coming in from the south got in his car and left. He
makes the 20th hiker I’ve met already today. Like a freeway out here
compared to what I remember in years past. The last one I met before the road
told me I was “almost to the road.” That set me to thinking about what that
phrase means. To me, “almost to the road” means I’m going to cross it in 100
yards or so – I basically can’t wait for it to appear. But to one of these
speed-through hikers tearing up the trail 20 to 30 miles a day – and he looked like
he qualified – “almost to the road” might mean a mile or two. Fortunately for
me, the road appeared about 10 minutes later. Stopped to drink water, have a
Cliff bar and read another London story.
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| The hike's first view of Mount Adams. |
Not far from the road I was
rewarded with my first view of Mount Adams, a peak I have always thought never
got the respect it deserved. It’s big at 12,276 feet in elevation and spread
out in shape much like Mount Rainier. Second highest peak in Washington State.
It’s more difficult to get to and there’s a “walk-up” route that will get you
to the top (been there). Maybe that’s why it seems neglected and disrespected to
me.
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| Thru hikers at lunch |
Also not far from the road, I
came across seven thru hikers having lunch at the spring gushing out from under
the lava beds on the north side of Adams. I sat awhile with them as they traded
food, napped, smoked and talked. The conversations ranged from video games to
what foods they liked on the trail, what ones they were tired
of, Greek
mythology (“What god did Athena have to contend with for the favor of Athens?”)
and, after some of them smoked one of those cigarettes that are shared, mentions
of the stars last night and one declaration that there was a UFO flying past
the mountain at 2:06 a.m.
 |
| Mount Adams lava beds |
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| Lava bed with peak of Adams in background. |
One of them said that the
success of thru hiking was “all about the sub six” – getting on the trail
before 6 a.m. I’ve got a ways to go. At least two others in the group said they
had made it onto the trail before 6 that morning.
One said he was low on food
and then the session of food trading and giveaway started, mostly from another
hiker who wanted to lighten his pack. The whole lot of them sounded as if they
would rest until 3 p.m. and then hike another 10 miles, finishing between 6 and
6:30 p.m.
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| You walk 30 miles a day, you need to nap. |
I had met “Big Boots” just
before the spring. He started on the trail April 17 and is now doing between 25
and 30 miles a day. I find that remarkable, but as he pointed out, “I have been
at this a while.”
As I walked on I began to
wonder about that pace. To me the best part of backpacking is the potential for
solitude and the actual “in camp” experience. I do the walking to get to places
with few people. But for these guys, the walking must be the main attraction,
given that they are at it 12 hours a day with minimal time spent in camp. Don’t
think I’ll be a thru hiker.
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| A trail sign aimed at northbound thru hikers. |
Camped just past the lava
spring at the “very good campsite” (according to John’s spread sheet) where I
am supposed to meet John tonight. It’s 15.6 miles from where I got on the PCT.
One of the thru hikers at the
spring told this story:
He had a friend who was a
high-school English teacher – we’ll call him Mr. Brown – and one day he came to
class very hung over. Before his first class arrived, he wrote something on the
black board and then pulled the projector screen down over it. When the students
had all assembled, he raised the screen to reveal the writing: “Mr. Brown is an
asshole.” He ordered all students to put their heads down on their desks until
whoever had written those vile words raised his or her hand and confessed. For
50 minutes there was silence as Mr. Brown nursed a coffee and took in the quiet
to quell his hangover.
A good story, but probably
could also make a good argument for teacher standards.
Here are some of the URLs I
collected today from hikers:
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