Day 96: The Day Goldie Got Cranky.

August 14th, 2021

Mile Marker: 2092.5

Miles Hiked Today: 29

It appears that my body is used to that 5 am wake up call regardless of how many miles I need to do.

We got up early and headed out for the day unsure of how many miles we were going to do. It felt nice knowing that there wasn’t any pressure to accomplish a certain amount of miles.

The morning and majority of the day was an easy hike. Flat terrain and soft trail.

We spoke for a short bit with a south bounder who told us how beautiful Washington was and how excited she was for us to get there. She asked about the rest of the trail and our advice for her.

I was cliche but I meant it, I told her to not quit on a bad day. That if she was in the dumps, to go into town and take a zero or cut back the miles.

Something I had witnessed on both the AT and PCT, there becomes a point where the trail feels somewhat like a chore, where you get a little tired of hiking everyday, where you get a little bored, where mentally you no longer are in it and then people quit.

It seems to happen when people are getting closer to the end too so I let her know to take the time she needed and then continue on.

Our tramily is apparently still in between bubbles or people had jumped further north to pass the fires or people were getting off trail. Hard to say which it was, but we are enjoying the solitude.

However, around lunch time we came by a lake that surprisingly had many weekend campers nearby. We kept hiking around the lake until we found the perfect spot that had zero people.

We ended up getting into the lake and spending a couple hours relaxing and eating before we continued on.

We crossed into Mt Hood National Forest today and later in the day got an outstanding view of Mt Hood. I don’t know what I was expecting but it almost took me back.

It was huge and actually had snow on it! Just magnificent.

We also came across this post…

All of us were laughing. Thank you for whoever did this.

Planner, Goldie, and I were hiking together in the evening and passed a large group of hikers sitting near the trail. Once we passed I overheard one of them say “Thru Hikes” and the other say “Yup”.

It’s as if we are so obvious to people. We can all tell who is a section hiker, day hiker, and thru hiker. It made me feel proud.

Exactly right. I am a thru hiker dang it!

At lunch we had decided that we wanted to make it to the highway that would lead us to Government Camp to get some beers. Since Babs’ dad was still around he said that he would meet us at the highway and take us in.

We ended up getting some drinks and making dinner at a camp spot by the highway. It was nice to have a few brews before bed.

While eating din din I was working on this blog post and asked the crew what to name my blog post. None of us could come up with something we liked so we came up with Goldie being cranky. So, here’s to Goldie for making my blog post title. 🍻