Wednesday, October 3rd.

Wednesday, October 3rd: Todays miles = 24.9 . Total PCT miles = 2,455.6. Miles remaining = 207.9.

The big cat from the night before was indeed a mountain lion and her cubs. Their paw prints were all over the frozen ground in the morning. I was grateful they didn't have much interest in me the night before. The temperature last night got well down into the teens! My guess would be that it got as cold as 10-15 degrees. I did not sleep. Not even a wink. I spent the entire night shivering, tossing and turning around in my sleeping bag. It was less than enjoyable.

By the time the sun came up it had warmed just a little bit and I felt like I could have finally fallen asleep. Unfortunately, Instead of sleeping, I knew I had to pack my things and start hiking. I got on the trail around 9am. The day didn't warm up much at all and I hiked the whole day in most of my gear. The miles were slow again today. I think its a Washington thing.

Lunch was a short oatmeal break. I didn't even want to stop hiking because I knew I could keep warmer if I stayed mobile. So, I ate as quickly as I could and continued on. I made a mistake in my resupply coming out of Snoqualmie. I somehow thought it was a great idea to buy all candy and cookies. Once I got back on trail I realized that all I had to eat were sweet things....and I don't even really like most sweet things. I seriously had an entire resupply of sugar (minus oatmeal and hard pretzels). Opps. 

The sun has been starting to set around 4:30pm it feels. Its around 6:30 before it actually goes down but it begins to get cold much earlier. By 4pm I still had 14 miles to hike. I knew it was going to be a cold and late night.

7 miles from my camp spot I came across a sign that read "Impossible creek crossing 2 miles ahead". I looked at it for a minute, said "eh, it cant be that bad", and continued hiking. By this time it was already as dark as dark can get and my eye lashes were beginning to freeze. "Keep walking, keep walking" is all I kept telling myself, and then I heard it; the raging white water of the river I decided wouldn't be that bad to cross. I could hear the water long before it ever came into sight, although, that's not saying much because with my headlamp I couldn't see much at all. I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to put my new batteries in my lamp, hoping that the enhanced ability to see would calm my nerves about crossing the river. It did no such thing. On the contrary, being able to clearly see what I was about to cross did the opposite. What I saw was a raging, white water river nestled in between a jumbled pit of boulders. I decided that before I even attempted to cross the water I needed to take a break and eat something. I sat mostly to prep myself for what I knew I was about to do. After a few moments of rest I got up and began surveying the river, looking for possible crossing points. I didn't really find anything. After a bit of investigation it was clear that the only way to get to the other side of the water was (ummm, cough, cough), a little less than ideal. Baboon asked me what my plan of attack was. I explained to him that the best way I saw to cross was to simply....jump and hope for the best. We couldn't ford the river with the temperature being what it was. Fording would have surly resulted in hypothermia. There were no good stepping stones to use nor were there any down logs to balance on. Most of the rocks and larger boulders that were in the river were either completely saturated with water or too far from shore to ever reach; except for one. I saw what was a large, somewhat flat boulder in the water. It was definitely a decent jump away from shore. I pointed to it and explained to Baboon that I was going to make the leap, hoping to land on the slippery boulder. He looked at me doubtfully. It wasn't encouraging. I took a minute before I began to edge out from shore on a rock that was just part of the giant rock pit we were in. I had my pack on my back and trekking poles in hand, and then I had a thought, a moment of doubt. Now, this moment didn't stop me from making the jump, but it did deter me from doing so with a 35 pound pack strapped to my back and trekking poles flaying around. My reasoning was as follows, if I jumped and missed the rock I felt sure enough that I could make my way out of the water where a perfectly dry pack with my dry sleeping bag would be waiting on shore for me. If I made the jump but failed to get my pack dryly across the water I knew if I was dry I could keep warm enough by fire side throughout the night. It was essential that either my pack or I stayed dry during this endeavour. I was hoping for both. So, I took my pack off, set it on shore, and made the jump. I took the wetness of the rock into consideration as I made my landing and made it across flawlessly. Thats when I remembered that the rock I was standing on was only halfway across the 'impossible creek crossing'! The other half of the crossing was less eventful and much easier and dosnt warrant a story. Baboon later tossed my pack to me and followed up with a leap of his own.

By the time I got across the water I still had 4 miles to hike on a ridge before I got to a flat spot for the night. 75 minutes, one meandering elk, and one encounter with a gigantic furry spider (white fur, red eyes... a creepy looking mother F-er) I made it to camp for the night. I made dinner, discovered my stove was broken, and was in bed by 11pm. It was another sleepless night.