As I write the rain is pouring, the thunder is rolling, and somehow the fires are still burning just a hundred miles north. Yesterday I took a day to rest/wait out some of the storm and get myself a replacement sleeping pad (my old one is permanently deflated 😢). Last night I spent the evening in the towns bar with some lumberjacks and wildfire fighters. Today I ate 3 breakfasts, bought new food, and have decided I’m incapable of waiting any longer and will be venturing out into the storm. I am already 1/3 into Washington, it’s crazy to think this will probably be the second (or third) to last chapter of this trip.
Washington is stunningly beautiful, I am in good spirits and good health, although both the trail and I am ready for me to be finished.
Day 100 [2150-2169]
After getting dropped off by my mother I sat at the coffee shop and wrote my last update. Then I began the long ascent from sea level at The Bridge of The Gods back to the mountains at 6000ft, luckily I was well rested and well nourished.
I ended up with a nice campsite near a river.
Day 101 [2169-2201]
Today was more of the same hiking. Not much was worth noting, but I did enjoy some of my only vegetables of the past few months (thanks for the potion mom). Then I shared a campsite and dinner with a girl named Oyster and Croque Missuer the Hawaiian landscaper.
Day 102 [2201-2232]
Today was perhaps my greatest physical feat of the trail. It may have looked like an average length day that was just walking through the rain. But I walked a continuous 3.6 mph pace for 9 hours. This was including bathroom breaks and I ate while I walked, it also included 3 large climbs.
This rush was for the purpose of getting into the 0 stoplight town of Trout Lake. Once I got there I searched out the best (and only) burger in town which was at the “music hall”. I was excited to check out this quaint local music underneath the stunning mount Adams. Upon arriving I realized that some guy named Willie Watson, quickly after I realized that it was Willie Watson of Old Crow Medicine Show.
Being there without friends and too tired to bother making any I just sat there and watched him play. I was totally immersed and lost in the rhythm and sounds of Appalachia. It was so real, so earthy, so genuine and so unlike the Pacific West—I loved it.
Day 103 [2232-2244]
Today I woke up and went to the town’s Presbyterian Church. It was full of very nice people and they were incredibly welcoming and kind. But I must say it was so very much a “Boomer” church. The woman leading the worship stopped the congregation several times to change the lyrics from “Christians” to “God’s Children” in order to be inclusive for her husband who is a Rabbi. There was also the shaman of a local Buddhist temple in the congregation. The preacher was going on a 3 week vacation and his “flock was to be watched” by these three avowedly non Christian leaders. And of course there were very few young people there. During the service there was one extended segment of sharing the microphone to give thanks (which clearly became a bragging contest veneered under false humility) and then a segment of personal prayers (which was exclusively for the minor surgeries and health issues of the aging congregation). I have thoughts on the effect of this very “Boomer” attitude which I have found at every one of the mainline Protestant churches I have stopped at. I should write a separate essay on it but for now I will just say this. 1. The unwillingness to define a thing prevents it from existing concretely: by definition a country without borders cannot be a country, by definition a religion without beliefs is just a club or friend group. 2. Obviously old people have health issues and the Bible does say that priests and congregations should pray over their sick. But the primary healing of the hospital that the church is must be the healing of souls damaged by sin—these wounds cannot be healed by ignoring sin or by prolonging the physical life. The generation of skepticism, of the hippies, of the anti-war movement, and of religious skepticism has failed to tear down those institutions it first called corrupt, it has only weakened them. Neither the government nor the church is less corrupt but the nation is un-pious and unpatriotic. ((But hopefully more on this later, (and of course I love all the boomers in my life, there’s just a reason their churches and institutions are crumbling through their smiles)) After church they (easily) made me eat lots of birthday cake and ice cream. (We sung happy birthday to 2 different members in the service)
ANYWAYS…after church I began climbing up towards Mt. Adams. I spent much of this hike trying to ship a replacement sleeping pad to my next town and didn’t make it very far. Nonetheless I slept beneath Mt. Adams and the sounds of its glaciers dislodging rocks which rolled down its side (both majestic and concerning to sleep to).
Day 104 [2243.6-2274]
Today was so good I wrote a poem while I walked
“I’m must go off to become a great man”
“None of you could understand”
“Any true hero needs trials” I said
And so across the nation, I would tread
There standing a top of the world.
God‘s truth would be to me unfurled
But through the turmoil of self exalting
I grew to tall too hear God’s calling
And so in my trying to become a king
I in my pride put on, that vicious one ring
I grew miserable from search of power
I could no longer smell God’s flowers
And towering there above his mountains
And sleeping there beside his fountains
I found that, though I had grown greater
I had lost touched with my creator
There in my morning and despair
Mercy caught me kneeling there
On my knees could I love the bees
I heard the wind and saw the trees
A lifting of the veil for a spirit in jail
An opening of the mind for the spiritually blind
Then once more I was alone
And new this gift would not again be shown
The spirit did behove: return to a home
So that you may love: know and be known
I could not climb some tower of Babel.
Only kneeling would God to me his plans unravel
By the end of the day I made it to the brink of Goat Rocks Wilderness and it made everything worth it. I’m a real sucker for a view let me tell you—this was one.
Day 105 [2274-2298]
Today I crossed through the lovely Goat Rocks Wilderness. It was cloudy and murky from smoke and fog, but I went slow enough that it cleared up some for me. I FaceTimed my grandmother, and showed her the view.
Then I pushed on down to Packwood to escape the approaching storm.
Day 106 [nothing]
Today I ate 4 meals, 3 pints of ice cream, tracked down the FedEx truck, and slept in my tent.
Then at night I ran into some wildfire fighters and exchanged some stories and jokes at the town’s bar.
Day 107 [2298-?]
Today I plan to head out into the storm, I’m tired of waiting. Even if I wait out this system of rain, Washington doesn’t get less rainy throughout the fall… I need to keep moving north.
After this next 100 mile stretch I will have to begin my “alternate” route to an alternate border finish in order to avoid all of the fire closures. I will have less maps, less towns, less hikers, and less information for this final stretch. Additionally it will also be colder, higher, more remote and more beautiful than any trail yet. It looks like the trail will end with quite the finale….but more on that later.