Blow by blow account of a typical day. Been meaning to do this for a while.
Woke up at 6 am. Slipped on shoes and stood outside to pee. It's maybe in the upper 40s °F. I'm wearing my thermals and down jacket. Condensation is on everything, including the outside of my sleeping bag. Grass is very wet. I fire up the stove to make coffee. It's Starbucks Via with lots of sugar. Delicious. Watch the sun come up from behind Mt. Adams. I chug the coffee and rinse out the pot and begin packing up camp. At 7:35, I start walking.
The trail winds a lot and passes several milky streams. I get water from a non-milky one. Suds is there. I say Hi but mostly finish filtering my water and snacking. Run into Snuggles a bit later. He notes how empty the trail is since he took an 8-day trail break. The herd has passed I tell him, and will probably finish in 6 or 7 days. He passes me while I'm on a break, I pass him later while he's taking lunch next to a creek. I see a couple of bowhunters in camouflage on trail carrying a small, mottled-grey bird. I don't see Suds or Snuggles for the rest of the day.
The trail stays mostly flat and crosses a couple of dirt roads. At the second one, there's a picnic going on with some thru-hikers and their friend from Washington. They take my trash and give me chocolate. They also offer to take my picture with my camera, figuring that I'm a solo hiker and don't have many photos with me in it. Sure. I keep walking.
Several miles later, there's a creek with good logs for sitting. It's 5 pm. I anticipate a dry camp that night so I decide to eat dinner there, saving me from carrying an extra liter of water (2.2 lb). Socks shows up 10 minutes later. I thought he was ahead of me since I went into a town that he skipped, but it turns out he got up really late that morning, and I probably passed him then. Dinner is two instant ramens (chicken) with soy protein flakes, olive oil for fat, freeze dried veggies (running low), and curry powder. The veggies add nice color to the starch. Handful of M&Ms and dried apricots for dessert. Rinse out my pot and pack up.
I push on, hoping to make it 7 miles to the next campsite before 8:30 pm. The trail opens up to some incredible views of forest around a lake with Mt. Adams in the background. I could get lost staring at those trees. Glaciated Adams looks like it's on another planet. I arrive at the campsite on time by the light of my headlamp.
I unpack and setup my tent. My InReach weather forecast says there's a 10% chance of rain at 6 am. NOAA forecasts aren't terribly accurate in mountainous regions, so I put my tent rainfly on any way. Expected low is 43 °F; water filter is definitely going into the sleeping bag tonight (freezing damages them). Socks passes by. He's going farther to check out the lake, which probably has better campsites. I've walked 32.4 miles today so I'm good. Average speed including all breaks was 2.5 mph. I put on my synthetic thermals and get in my sleeping bag. Hear someone coughing nearby, guess I have a neighbor. Typed this in 30 minutes, going to sleep at 10 pm.
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