DAY 169: STEEP UPS

miles: 16.5

Swimming would be at the end of our day today.

I didn't take a whole lot of photos today, as we were in the hiking zone, but I will briefly describe what it's been like out here after having not hiked this many miles in almost a year.

OUR BODIES

Are surprisingly resilient.
Surprisingly do not ache or hurt as much as we had anticipated.
Surprisingly snap into gear quickly.

We set out on this trip under the impression that we would be hurting. That our bodies were not in near as good of shape as they were last year (obviously) and that we would be struggling.

This is not the case.

Day one - we powered through the day, and although it may have been partially adrenaline, we felt great at the end of the day. It's as if our bodies immediately recognized the routine and clicked into gear.

Thru-hiking is ingrained in us and we tapped into our hiking reserve and were on autopilot.

The muscle memory is unbelievable.

It's almost as if, despite the muscular atrophy that has taken place since our hike ended last year, we are still able to tap into some sort of muscle memory/strength reserve and become a thru-hiker again.

It's that easy.

I now know what the phrase, "you only have a first thru-hike, once" means - so true.

Morning stream crossings. 

This photo doesn't do it justice, but this is a HUGE log jam. It took forever to navigate. 

We got within 8 miles of Stevens Pass and decided to call it a night. The lake was too beautiful to pass up, and we wanted so badly to take a swim.

So we did.

We would wake up early in order to get to Stevens Pass by 10:00am.


SWIMMING.