Day 107: Burn Zone Galore.

August 25th, 2021

Mile Marker: 2366.8

Miles Hiked Today: 29

This morning was a cold one, I found myself tightening my sleeping bag around 4 am to lock in all the heat.

We woke up, packed our bags, and headed out while eating a bar. None of us had planned enough water for breakfast so we needed to hike 4.5 miles to the next water source. It seemed rather dark out this morning as the sun was trapped behind the heavy smoke. Around 7:30 I found the sun trying to shine through.

I for some reason I had it in my head that walking through burn zones was going to be over when I hit Washington. Unfortunately, that is very untrue. We spent a good chuck of the morning walking through a burn zone and stopping to have breakfast in one.

While there we met two women who were out for a section hike together. They seemed like they did this every year; leave the kids at home, meet up with their best friend, and go backpacking. They continuously had each other laughing and I became rather fond of them. Two besties enjoying each other’s company.

After a nice breakfast break, we headed out for 5 more miles to a cabin on trail.

It was one of the best ones we have seen on trail and it had a gorgeous view of a meadow in front of it.

Inside had a wood burning stove and a hammock! I was drawn to it immediately and spent most of my time swinging away.

It’s hard not to imagine living there full time and what it would be like. My own little small cabin out in the woods with a gorgeous view, yes pleaseeeeeeeeee!

After another nice long break we headed out for an additional 18 miles. The morning had started really slow but it was only noon when we left so if we kept it going, we would still make it to camp early.

We came through yet another burn zone that was from a very long time ago. Look how bizarre it looks! Like Pick Up Sticks. All the trees had fallen over and nothing had really regrown.

We stopped 5 miles later for lunch in a beautiful meadow with popping yellow flowers and ice cold water.

The views afterwards became better and we noticed that the smoke had seemed to die down some! Thank the lord!

The ridge walks were quite lovely!

For the second half of the day I kept hiking past markers on the trees where someone wrote on them with short phrases. I found it fun looking forward to what the future ones would say.