Friday, July 15    Miles today: 15.9     Total so far: 1,145.2   Washington Section I                              

Today we got to sleep in on a nice soft bed, eat pizza leftovers from last night, then to the motel office for their “continental breakfast” of coffee, juice, melon and pound cake.  Next on the agenda was food supplies from the grocery store, with a walk down Packwood’s main street looking for a mosquito net for Bill’s hat and more lithium batteries for the camera.  No luck on either, but we did see a VERY old hotel, with a banner that read, “Experience history–only $29 a night”.  Wow!  I would love to stay there sometime!  And the views of Mt. Rainier from Packwood are truly beautiful.  Everywhere we walked in town, you could glance up, and there was Rainier,  just “overhead”.   But hiker hunger was calling, and we headed to a restaurant for a THIRD breakfast.  Hobbits have nothing on us! 

Thoroughly stuffed, we loaded up our packs and went out to the road to hitch a ride back to White Pass.  But it was a discouraging business!  Several people wished us well, but were not going to the Pass.  Over an hour later, a van from Adventure Trek  (a group that takes kids on incredible mountainclimbing, kayaking, etc. trips) stopped and asked, “Are you guys PCT thru-hikers?”  When we said yes, they said, “Hop in!”  There was just room for us plus packs to fit in with the young, dedicated group of leaders riding in the van.  They were getting ready for a group of kids due to arrive in a couple of days for the “Pacific Northwest Adventure Trek.”  Talking to them, I could see that they love the outdoors and love kids and are well-trained.  Great combination! 

The Trekkers dropped us off at the PCT and we headed into the woods with 5 days of food.  The trail was very damp, and a lot of work had been done to raise it, drain it, and even surface it “corduroy style” with cut logs.  THANKYOU to whoever did all that work–it is so much better than slogging through a “mud trail”.  We met a number of horses and riders, all very friendly.  One group had 7 or 8 riders total, and 4 happy dogs, which were playing in a lake when we came by.  The riders cheered for us when they found out we were thru-hikers, and said we were the first they’d seen who “weren’t just kids.”  Well, that was pretty encouraging!  The only DIScouraging thing is that because the PCT here is so damp, the horses really do make a mess of it.  Back home in Sonoma county, CA, they close the trails to horses when it’s been raining and wet.  I guess that’s not possible here–it’s always damp.  But damp also means GREEN–and is it ever!  Green grass, green trees, lots of flowers, and lots of  little cute “mosquito-breeder ponds.” 

By the end of the day, we’d met no other hikers–only horsemen.  The sky was clouding up and looking like rain, and the mossies were out in full force to the point that just to eat supper, we had to go into “mosquito mode” with Bill huddled under the net tent, and me in full raingear and headnet.  But before dark, we found a nice dry, flat place to set up our net tent and camp.