Miles: 9.9
Total: ~163.4
Sent From:
Sometimes the best laid plans...
I woke up this morning next to Pheonix (aka Flail) who slept in my down puffy jacket. She rolled over to the edge of the tent, which caused all the tent condensation and rain to be absorbed through the wall and into my down jacket. She was shivering and laying in a puddle of water. We dried her off as best we could, and slowly started packing.
The rain fell all night, and it was still spitting off and on heavy spurts of rain. We roused Pseudognome and V8 around 7:30. Pseudognome packed up his tent and then came to check on us hiding from the rain in the tent. Eventually V8 made his way to our tent and the four of us sat in the shelter listening to rain falling until 11am. All the while, we were debating our choice to go ahead.
Being wet is pretty demoralizing. It is not too bad when you are moving, but the constant state of moisture seeped into everything you have makes it hard to motivate to face the rain. We laid out the Pros and Cons of going forward. My feet were starting to show plantar pain. Pseudognome was experiencing ankle pain due to a changed gait from a blister. None of us wanted to be wet for another 4 days of rough miles.
V8 accidently poured soup water in one shoe, and left the other out in the rain. His air mattress popped and his pillow popped. Yet despite these, he still felt compelled to go forward. Apricots and I came back to this section to see it not enshrouded in fog, and yet we sat in the middle of a big wet cloud. A difficult decision was before us and we had to weigh the mathematics of desire. What did we want most? Comfort? Experience? Hot tub? Perseverence? We were pretty divided.
We put fate to a coin, and the coin said move ahead 4 out of 5 times. So we finished packing and started our trek forward. I noticed that Pseudognome was moving at a slower pace, and so we offered to him to head back. As he mulled it over, I started to reflect on my own foot pain and wonder whether I was making a bad choice to move forward. Sixty three miles forward in questionable weather, or seven back to a foot rest and the comforts of dry sleep, and shelter from the weather.
We debated this for far too long, and eventually turned back. V8 said he was moving forward, but I wanted to make sure his parents would sign off on him solo trekking the leg. As soon as we reached a place with cell reception we called his father who encouraged him to take the challenge, and understood the need for me to rest my foot. We sent V8 on his way North with a backup GPS, an extra bit of food, a spare battery for his devices, and full confidence in his strength to pull through.
After the 150 miles of trail, we have watched V8 be strong, be self-confident, and demonstrate the qualities a thru-hiker needs. Apricots and I feel like we have planted the seed of long distance backpacking desire in him, and he has beem exposed to several "unexpected trail choices" that come with the trail experience. "Hike Your Own Hike" is the trail mantra we try to live by, and we see that he is embracing this to its fullest.
It is a little nerve racking to part ways with him, and I now better understand what my parents may feel while I am out, maybe not to the same level, but I feel confident he will be fine.
We descended through mist and cloud back to Snoqualmie Pass where we decided to dry out and rest up in the hotel again. We will find our way to Steven's Pass to meet V8 at the end of this leg. From there, we will likely return to the Goat Rocks to catch the ~30 miles we missed.
Tonight we got a Garmin In Reach message from V8:
-----All is good. Very rocky trail but clear weather. Glad I continued------
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