I didn't sleep as well as I had been sleeping on the rest of the trip. I had a problem for the first time. My right foot was experiencing some numbness. It was making sleep very difficult. I actually was trying to sleep differently to help it out. It was hard to stay asleep without thinking about my foot. I still got enough sleep, but it wasn't as restful as the rest of the trip had been. The beginning of the hiking today was all downhill. It seemed like a funny concept to have to go downhill to get to a pass, but that was how it often was. I was going downhill to reach Tacoma Pass. When I got near there, there was a creek. Quite a few people were camping around the creek. One of them even told me how to get access to the creek, but since it had not been very warm, I was doing quite okay with water.
I thanked them, but continued on my way. Once I got to Tacoma Pass, it was mostly uphill. I continued on spending today going back and forth between listening to Audible and listening to some music. It was a lot of forest time and while it was a beautiful day, the forest was my main friend. Sometimes I would pop out and get views of Mt. Rainier or the peaks around Snoqualmie Pass, but for the most part, I was in the forest. Around 10:30, I found a spring to get some water and I filled up. The trail went up and down quite a bit and there were some open sections with lots of sunshine. I continued to practice my strategy of taking the trail one hour at a time and it seemed to help. Luckily there were quite a few berries along the way.
I had to control myself because I would lose all forward momentum if I stopped to eat too often, but I also could not let the big, juicy huckleberries go by just walking past. I made some good progress and soon I was crossing Stampede Pass. I talked to another hiker around here who was sadly disappointed with the scenery as we crossed a large field under some large power lines. It made me hopeful for the way ahead because the scenery here was rather similar to the scenery I had been seeing for quite some time the last couple of days. Today, though, I seemed to have a goal. I was wanting to make it to Mirror Lake. It sounded great to have a bath in the lake and it sounded prettier than what I was currently looking at. So I continued. I had to work hard to get to Mirror Lake. At this point, my foot was not feeling that badly. I figured when I got to camp, though, it would because I am sure another 23 miles on it was going to wear me out a little bit. I kept pushing, though, and even though it was later than I was hoping to get there, I pulled in to Mirror Lake at 6:24 pm. There were a lot of campsites taken and I had to scour around to find a decent one. I was lucky to find one relatively close to another person who I never say emerge from there tent. I made sure to get all set up, but my first order of business was a dip in the lake.
Even though the sun had passed behind the trees, this was still a worthwhile endeavor. It cooled me off quickly and cleaned me up a bit. I never stayed in long having accomplished my two goals rather quickly. I ate some dinner after that and frankly I was tired. My foot was feeling not so bad and I wondered if I had helped it out by loosening my shoe a little bit. It seemed like it was less sore, but it was still numb. I did my best to give it some rest as I made my best attempt at getting to sleep as soon as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment