Day 128: mile 2384.9 – mile 2393.6

Elevation gain: 1,264 ft

Elevation loss: 2,479 ft

TOWN DAY TODAY, PEOPLE!! Since we did those extra couple miles and 1,000 ft of elevation gain yesterday afternoon, we only had 8.7 miles to get into Snoqualmie! We had heard from many hikers how great this town was so we were very anxious to check it out for ourselves. We got going by 7am again this morning, but not before taking some lovely photos of the lake…very obvious why they call it Mirror Lake!

Mantis caught us giving each other our daily morning hug…before we both get sweaty and gross 😜

Mantis & Pants weren’t quite ready to go, so we started hiking with Bob. It was sooo smoky this morning. We know it’s from the fire we have seen south of us, but this is the first night and day without any wind which had been keeping the smoke away. I’m so glad we didn’t have to walk in the smoky air longer than a few hours. It really would’ve made it tough to breath, and with the high temps expected this weekend, it could’ve been pretty miserable!

Purple Foxglove

When we only had about 2 miles left to go, we found ONE White Oak Raspberry bush. We have only seen these one other time during the entire trip. We absolutely needed to stop and clear that bush of all the dark red ones for sure…man, were they tasty! As I’ve said before, I have a hard time eating trail food when I know that town food is coming soon, so I was hungry. I was just bummed we only found one bush…I could’ve stayed there a while for sure.

Just as we were done devouring that bush, Mantis & Pants caught up so we all walked into town together. We said goodbye to Bob once we were close to the parking lot since we were heading to the Summit Inn to stay tonight and for our LAST zero tomorrow.

We got to the hotel at 10:15 and it’s decent…definitely not the adorable White Pass Resort room, but it will do. They had our resupply box #30…only 2 more to go. My mother in law sent the last 2 boxes this week and now her very important job is over. She did the most amazing job organizing all the contents, buying more food as needed, making sure the addresses were correct, sending all the boxes from the PO, and then calling each place to assure they were delivered. She definitely went above and beyond what I’m sure she thought she signed up for, and we appreciate her more than she will ever know. We love you, Nonnie! The hotel room has 2 queen beds instead of a king which actually works out well because then we can eat in one bed while we sleep in the other without crumbs 😂 We needed them to fix the light in the bathroom as well as the AC, but the location can’t be beat. We have multiple choices of restaurants and a market all within a tenth of a mile which is definitely key!

After we showered, we met Mantis & Pants at the Summit Pancake House which is actually attached to the Summit Inn…nice! We had awesome scrambles, pancakes and root beer, of course. Then we headed to the market just next door where we loaded up on snacks for the room: cheese Doritos, cheese & crackers, drinks, Milano cookies, butter toffee peanuts, and some sour candies. It’s so funny how we seem to crave different things during each town stop. I also got a new pair of sunglasses because I noticed that my $4.99 pair were distorted on the top quarter of the lenses. This meant that when I looked up, everything appeared a little blurry which isn’t helpful when I already have difficulty not tripping on this trail as it is!

Two pieces of good news, and one piece of bad news. First, for the good: Link’s dad and wife have so generously offered to pick us up from Hart’s Pass after we reach the Terminus, and drive us to Seattle where we can catch a flight home. Soo fabulous that they are willing to drive all the way from Utah to help us out!! Second piece of good news is that exactly TWO WEEKS from today we will be touching that Northern Terminus…Isn’t it crazy!! Now for the bad news: our last town stop is in Stehekin, and they only have room at the resort one night. All 4 of us had planned on taking our last zero there, but they were all booked up for the 2nd night when we called to reserve the room. This means we will not be able to reach the Terminus with Mantis & Pants ☹️ This is a big bummer, but we will all be together one last time in Stehekin and plan to celebrate then for sure. Our special friendship will last forever whether or not we get to Canada at the same time together ♥️

We headed over to Dru Bru Brewery across the street for some beers and cider. We were sitting there only a few minutes when a section hiker, Assassin, walked over and offered us the rest of her pepperoni pizza. We had just met her in the hotel an hour earlier and thought that was so nice of her because Link never feels full. So she set the pizza down, sat down herself and then proceeded to bag on Pants’ Packers hat. Assassin is from PA, but told us she is a Vikings fan. Then when we told her that Link and I are Steelers fans she started bagging on them as well! We found it extremely weird that we just met this hiker and all of a sudden she felt like she could comfortably criticize both of our beloved football teams. When she finally got up from the table Link said, “she probably got her hiker name because she likes to “kill” any possible relationship with anyone”…so true! 🤣 We had a question in the blog comments about our “hiker hunger”, so I thought I’d ask Link and Pants to chat about it in this video below.

After a few beverages and dinner, a couple of section hikers came over and told us they wanted to buy us a round of drinks. We had met Rob and Barb on the trail yesterday and really enjoyed chatting with them. The time just flew by because they are so fun and easy to talk to, and before we knew it, the place was closing. Thanks so much, guys!

Cool sky tonight!

What a great day…since we got into town so early, it really felt like a long day off. Now to have another day to relax tomorrow as well is awesome! Thanks so much for following along and rooting us on…we can feel all your support! DoubleDown