Saturday, August 25, 2018 – 16.10 miles

Another desolately grey and cold dawn. Because the smoke has persisted and I’ll be arriving at Snoqualmie Pass tomorrow, today’s theme was coming to terms with tomorrow being my last day on the PCT. It’s like discovering that your phone is missing from your pocket, but not being upset because you believe for no reason other than the magnanimity of the universe that it must be in a different pocket rather than lost. That’s me expecting a miraculous clearing of the smoke.

Today was also ultramarathon day! I didn’t see many runners since most hadn’t reached my position before I made camp for the night, but I passed two of the aid stations, which were lovely and fed me and took my garbage. What is this exceptional service?? Is this why people run marathons? One of the stations even had hot food like tortillas with cheese. I asked one of the workers whether there was somewhere less smoky to hike in Washington, but he couldn’t think of a place. He also urged me to visit Stehekin so strongly that I started to suspect he was invested in a business there.

Drizzle on and off throughout the afternoon. I stealth camped in the forest.