DAY 154: SNOQUALMIE

miles: 19

September 20th, 2013.

Days where we are heading into town are always (and for some reason ALWAYS) rough for me. I'm not sure if it is mental or if it has something to do with being tired at the end of a section... probably a little bit of both? Today started of well, Ben and I were in great moods, we felt well, and had a lot of energy. Plus - it was another day in paradise, being sunny and warm outside. The perfect temperature. 

Smiles and Dr. Slosh filling up on water. 

Things started going downhill for me once the hunger hit. I'm always starving these days. Food has become a struggle, I'm sick of everything in my food bag and almost refuse to eat it, choosing starvation over gagging down yet another bar. Luckily, I packed out a jumbo bag of Cool Ranch Dorito's and finished them off this morning for mid-morning snack.

Food.

What will it be like to eat real food again? I don't think I've had something green in months. Except for green gushers.

Snoqualmie 7 miles.

The trail leading up to Snoqualmie Pass was nice, weaving it's way through tall forests. But by the time we reached the point where we only had 4 or 5 miles left, time seemed to become static. I felt like I was going nowhere, and the trail suddenly turned into an obstacle course specifically aiming to break my ankles and knees. It was very slow going and the uphill seemed to never end. We were supposed to be going down, down, down to Snoqualmie Pass and I-90, but appeared to be climbing towards to sky.

I was very close to temper tantrum stage by the time we came up over the hill of the ski resort.

The mountains in our future.

Lots of gross stagnant water.

Wisps of wasp nests discarded on the ground.

Fun Fungi

We finally reached the ski area and Ben and I took the direct short cut that led us straight down the hill to the Summit Inn where we had a reservation waiting for us.

Dr. Slosh and Smiles were right behind us. They were going to go stay with Dr. Slosh's aunt about 40 minutes East of Snoqualmie Pass.

Finally able to see the interstate and ski area.

The ostentatious cabins that speckle the I-90 area also known as: construction zone of hell.

Immediately the mission was to check in to our hotel room as soon as possible. We went inside, met up with other hikers we hadn't seen for ages, and were informed that our wait could be a while... I think 45 minutes went by before we ever saw someone who worked there that could help us! After finally checking in... starvation was the next thing to address. There are only 2 options for a hot meal here: 1) The Summit Inn Pancake place and 2) Aardvark, a food "cart" reminiscent of Portland's food carts serving eclectic mix of foods such as curry, bacon cake with ice cream inside, hamburgers, pineapple cake, and other interestingly DELICIOUS tidbits. Ben had both the giant curry mess AND a sloppy burger. I had the curry and died over the amount of fresh cilantro there was... I love. cilantro.

The decor in the Summit Inn.

Packs.

The food cart "Aardvark" in the Chevron parking lot that was to die for! 

Hikers eating at Aardvark.

Aardvark - some of the best food on trail. Definitely the most nutritious and unique.

Snoqualmie area is kind of like an empty wasteland of strange places. 

After eating and eating and eating, we had some serious decisions to make. Some serious discussions to have. Some assessing to do. A storm was headed our way tonight and it would be bringing heavy rain and the possibility of snow in the higher elevations. We were already behind schedule in terms of our desired end-date of October 1st or 2nd... and we were pondering skipping ahead to Stevens Pass in order to avoid the possibility of trip-ending snow and unpleasant weather.

I've already skipped a large-ish section down in California (remember? the section between Truckee and Sierra City due to the purple rolled ankle?) so I was no purist anymore, by any means but this was a tough decision. Ben was not keen on skipping unless we had to, and I wanted to continue our purist walk through OR/WA but... I also didn't want to be miserable and/or not reach Canada. There were already rumors of snows to come and it was terrifying. We discussed. But we'd sleep on it and see what happened with the weather forecast the next day... For now? ENJOY SITTING DOWN, EATING GOOD FOOD THAT REMINDS US OF PORTLAND, and ENJOY OUR COMFY ROOM.