Day 109

Rainy day. We awoke in a steady drizzle, so I packed up quickly and hit the road. After a strange interaction with Pilgrim at a stream, we basically powered through the fifteen miles to Steven’s Pass without stopping in order to stay warm in the high forty degree wet weather.

During a lull in the rain, we arrived at the Dump Truck Challenge climb, a set of steep switchbacks amounting to 800’ of gain over 0.8 miles. For several years, through hikers have gone as fast at they could up this incline and posted their times to FarOut/Guthooks. I didn’t step on the gas fast enough and ended with a pitiful time of 13:44. I expect my ultra running friends Buff Baby, Cinderella, and The Model to blow this time out of the water. Roadrunner wasn’t really feeling it but still did a respectable 14:55.

It was mostly downhill to Steven’s Pass, and my rain jacket kept me dry enough that I wasn’t miserable when we arrived. Roadrunner, on the other hand, was truly at her wit’s end with the cold rain and dense fog, so we made the audible to hitchhike into Leavenworth and spend the night at the Loge hostel. Though this gave up much of the surplus miles we had made by going over the mileage necessary for me to finish on time, the chance to dry off, have a hot shower, and eat copious German food was probably worth it. Leavenworth, a logging town converted to resemble a Bavarian village in order to attract tourists, was pretty weird but had great food and an excellent ice cream shop.

Back to trail tomorrow!