Posted by 2230.2 to 2242.6, 12.4 miles
Nancy so kindly picked my at my Motel to drive me out towards the trail. It was great seeing her again and catching up in the car for the 1.5 hour drive.
Arriving at Trout Lake about half ten, it was too early for lunch but the huckleberry shakes at the shop couldn’t be passed up.
Reaching the trail just after 11am it was time to shoulder the pack and get started.
It took a while to find my legs after so long off trail and the first hill was a killer. Nancy came along for a trail walk and run, walking about 4 mile in with me and running back down. She has a 50km trail run coming up.
My pack feels great and is perfectly moulded to my back although my hips weren’t so used to carrying the extra load. There were a few people about, mostly overnight hikers I think as most were fairly clean. No south bounders yet.
I’m hoping I run into Crunchmaster, a 2019 hiker who I’ve been following on YouTube. He skipped up north to the border and is heading southbound and should be in the area in the next day or two. I’ve been following his trip through Washington to gauge the snow levels.
I was going to walk just 10 miles today but reached that at 4pm, it was way too early to pull up stumps for the day, so I pushed on a little more. By 5pm I’d reach 12.4 in and my feet were telling me to call it quits. I’m in no rush and want to ease into it. Found a nice spot for one tent right at the base of Mt Adams with an amazing clear view upto the glaciers. Much better than last year when the summit was blanketed in smoke. The next camp site was a ways off and I didn’t have it in me to push any further. There is no way I was going to pull a 20 mile day on day one.
Mick Beckers 