The hiking today was pretty much a pleasure cruise. Very little elevation change and easy trails. Plus I was in a good mood because my tent site (pictured) had fantastic sunrise views.
The day's landscape alternated between deep woods, burned hillsides (pictured), and great swaths of clear cutting. The picture of the burned out hillside is from a fire that burned over 3000 acres. Actually, as I marveled at that view I smelled smoke and noticed the haze of a forest fire amid the distant hills. The burns and clear cuts can get a bit depressing despite the views they afford. The silver lining is the great quantity of huckleberry bushes that are able to grow on the sunny slopes - but I'll get to that in a minute.
There were two major annoyances today. In the clear cuts and burns the sun could get pretty warm, and I am trying to avoid too much of it after the sun exposure I got in the mountains. In the woods, though, I was constantly walking through spider webs and caterpillar silk. Little green caterpillars hang by the thousands from threads strung all along the trail. These aren't so bad, except every now and then you get a spider web instead. I managed to haul up short of large webs at least five times, catching myself inches away from going face first into a fat spider. I know I didn't always stop myself in time because when I stopped for dinner I had gray and black spiders, the size of my thumb nail, crawling in tangled webs that caught on my pack. I'm not sure which was worse, the sun or the webs, but I found myself thinking the grass was greener all day as the trail switched between the two.
I was crossing one particular hillside, cursing the sun, when I noticed some huckleberries. Now there are huckleberry bushes all over, but very few have ripe berries. It's either too early, or the bushes haven't gotten enough water. In any case, these berries were ripe and I was ready for a treat. I dropped my pack and picked away. I guess that makes me an official migrant worker? Well it wasn't easy work, let me tell you. Bending, searching, picking, stooping. All for a handful of berries that were gone in an instant. We've all heard the argument that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from hard working Americans. As someone who came north from the Mexican border to end up picking berries under the hot sun, let me weigh in as eloquently as I know how...
FUCK. THAT.
They can have the damn job. I spent 20 minutes picking berries, for my own consumption no less, and that was good enough for me! Hell, I'm not even that fond of working anyway. But hang on. I will need a job after this trip. Hmmm... well, let me ask some basics about the job and maybe I'll do it after all.
1. You're growing your berries all the way down at ground level. Does your workman comp policy cover chiropractic?
2. How long before I get enough promotions to make minimum wage? Do I get time-and-a-half for work over 40 hours? How about holiday pay?
3. How many berries do I have to pick before my medical, dental, vacation time and 401k kick in?
4. I'm going to need Sundays off for religious observation (excessive masturbation while watching the golf channel counts, right?) I'm sure you can work around my schedule?
5. What's the potential for promotion like?
Yeah, I'm sure hard working Americans are gonna jump all over that career path.
Anyway, I gorged on huckleberries. With all the peanut butter in my diet I'll probably be crapping PB&Js for a week. Afterward I rounded out the afternoon with a few more miles, bringing my total to 37.5 for the day. Now I'm camped beside Stirrup Creek, with 14 more miles to Snoqualmie Pass. I'm excited because I should arrive there midday and will be checking into Summit Inn as a last treat before my 8 or 9 day push to Canada. That means I get half of the day tomorrow to eat, shower, relax, eat, soak in the tub, catch up on email and blogs, eat, and prepare mentally for the final 250 miles!
