July 3: Alpine Lakes

I was up early this morning, anticipating our scheduled 9:00 am trip back up to the trail with Jerry.

It was around 6:00 and I had a couple of hours to spare, so I poured a cup of coffee for myself and picked up a copy of The Old Man and The Sea which I had found lying around yesterday. I sat alone at the kitchen table turning pages, sipping coffee and I was able to finish it before anyone else in the house had roused. It was a good feeling to bite off a complete story like that, undisturbed, all at once, before starting my day. I enjoyed it very much. I appreciated the sense of passion in the characters, and the love shared by the old man and boy. It's funny: all I know about fishing comes from reading Hemingway, between this story, To Have and Have Not, and his Nick Adams stories.

After my reading, I hit the shower, packed, cooked up a couple of nice fatty omelettes for E and I, and then we loaded up our packs in the back of Jerry's pick-up. We said good-bye to Freebird, Shade, and Nomi and thanked Andrea and were off. Before leaving, I asked if Jerry wouldn't mind swinging by the restaurant we had eaten at the other night. I had books on the mind and at dinner two nights ago at the Cascadia Inn, I had noticed a shelf of used books which were clearly there for the taking -- a swap kind of thing. I had noticed a novel then that an ex-housemate Franz had recommended to me last year called Life of Pi, and wanted to exchange my copy of All Quiet on the Western Front for it. The WWI book is too much to handle out here. Walking all day, feeling exhausted, the last thing I need at night is to read about and dream about the horrors and tragedies of living through such an event. It is too easy to imagine the reality of it, or at least a snapshot of it. It affects me too greatly. So, I ditched it today in favor of something contemporary and colorful and presumably much less gut-wrenching.

Glancing through the new book this evening as we waited for our water to boil, Eliza laughed and said, "Jere, this is so funny. Listen." and she proceeds to read aloud the first review which is listed inside the book's cover. It mentions some of the novelist's apparent influences, and concludes that this work is most closely comparable to Hemingway's classic "foray into existentialist parable" -- yes, you guessed it -- The Old Man and the Sea. I thought that was pretty cool coincidence. Things seem to be in synch here around us these days.

***

But back to the trail. Reading time is scarce since we upped our miles covered per day . . .

Today was a beautiful day. We were back and hiking at 10 am. Lots of hikers and weekend backpackers out, enjoying the long holiday weekend. I think we probably saw more hikers today than anywhere outside of the first couple of days on the PCT when everyone started like a great big pack at Campo.

We entered Alpine Lakes Wilderness and it is really, really beautiful here. Lakes everywhere, snowy peaks, big creeks, heavy forest. We finally caught a magnificent, full frontal view of Mt. Baker looking up from the SE as we ascended up to Pieper Pass. We are both in love with the mountains up here. These are the American Alps. The bad thing, however, was that today the mosquitoes were unbearable. I finally used my headnetting and wore full body covering, despite the mild to warm temps. They were chubby bastards with good aim and they wore stripes on their filthy little abdomens. We are both feeling a little anxious about how much of this we will be able to take this summer. Would rain be better? we ask ourselves.

We hiked a good 25 today. We have decided to set loftier daily distance goals for the NW and thusfar, it is working out. There is little time for much other than hiking, however. I hope that this new book doesn't become a piece of dead weight in my pack.