Day 17 – 3/30/16
10.7 map / 10.9 GPS miles
237.1 / 247.3 miles total

Yes, we are FINALLY back on trail!

  

So it turns out hitchhiking makes a great spectator sport. All 5 of us in town wanted to get back to the trail today (Carrot, Dan, Joey, Bubs and me). Carrot and Dan got their thumbs out by the gas station on the edge of town first, around 10:15am. The rest of us were sipping coffee in the cafe, Blondies, across the street. Oh the suspense as each car approached our friends, and the heartbreak as they turned into the gas station parking lot or sped away instead. A woman at the table next to us heard our commentary about the hitching going on outside, and said, “gosh, wouldn’t it be great to be that free?” We laughed “that’s going to be us in 15 minutes.”

Instead it was an hour and fifteen minutes. The rest of us were ready to leave too, but it wasn’t going to help any of our situations to have 5 people standing out there on the side of the road. Finally we watched Carrot and Dan get picked up and headed outside to try our luck. Only 15 minutes for us!!  

We had a pretty easy day of walking, though we did get snowed on briefly and gained almost 3,000′, putting us at 7770′ in camp. 

 

We intentionally stopped after only hiking 10 miles today, because it puts us in a good position for getting over Mt Ellen tomorrow while still camping below the snow line. There are actually patches of white all around us and the edges of the little creek nearby are frozen up. It’s a down booties night for sure.