The west side of the loop is mostly in the trees and has six
notable climbs on the profile, feeling good we cruised through the climbs,
perhaps a little faster than intended and also sucked down our water supply
much quicker than planned and found ourselves looking for good sources only
three hours into the run. Our
first stop came with good timing, but we realized that we should have probably
tried using the steripen as Matt suggested in camp. It didn’t seem to be working, but in the meantime I was
holding the bladders and Darcy stirred the steripen through while the mosquitos
went to town on our shoulders and backs.
I was trying to use my knees to wipe my arms (picture that!) and Darcy
told me to make friends with the bugs.
We ended up opting to treat the water with some tabs Basit gave us and had
to wait another 30 minutes to drink.
In that time I noticed my clothes started to dry. I’d basically been soaked through with
sweat since the start, but was now starting to dry. Once the 30 minute mark hit and we started to drink again it
almost felt instantaneous that I was responding to the humidity as I should. There was one more point of running dry
and searching for water as we approached our last decent before Mowich. The source we finally found was perfect
and better yet, Darcy figured out how to use the steripen! We were able to rehydrate and start
sweating again immediately.
It felt like darkness happened quickly, the sun was setting
and the sky filled with amazing hues of pink. We caught a glimpse of Rainier’s summit through the trees and
marveled. It looked like it was on
fire! I started singing Micheal
Franti’s “Yell Fire!” and we cruised up the final climb to Mowich lake. Fred and Austin had met us near the
bottom and were capturing the last minutes of daylight as we chugged like a
train to the top of the climb, each taking turns in front to maintain the
steady pace.
Basit met us on the trail and sprinted ahead to let the guys
know we were up for soup and ginger beer.
Turns out we caught them a little off guard, everything was ready, but
they were not expecting us for another 30-40 minutes. We cruised in to our first point under 8 hours feeling good,
hungry and enjoyed chatting with our guys who had everything dialed to get us
back on the trail.
We figured we had 9 hours of darkness. We each took our iPod’s, but hesitated
putting in music as we ventured back into the night. This section of trail was familiar to me once we got around
the lake and knowing Darcy’s mad downhill skills I stepped aside and she pulled
us down the steep trail. As we
dipped down into the deeper, thicker trees I believe the hair stood up on both
our necks with the realization that something may be watching us. Our verbal noises transitioned from
conversation to random yells, chirps and whatever we could think of to ward off
large lurkers in the spaces our headlamps couldn’t make out. At one point we decided to each turn on
our music and sing as we journeyed through the night. I can only imagine what that might have sounded like had
someone or something come upon us.
Not long after leaving Mowich Lake we came across a detour
for the Northern Loop trail. We
were confused and worried that we’d missed a turn and pulled out the maps I’d
laminated and tried to make sense of where we were. Between the two of us we figured it was one of two places
and kept moving forward knowing that we would know in less than a half
mile. We crossed another trail
sign that put us on the Northern Loop and we opted towards the Carbon Glacier
and soon after came across another sign posted with another detour explaining
that the access to the Wonderland Trail had been rerouted. In the recesses of my mind I remembered
Ellen and I making our way through this same detour years ago. I double checked that the Spot was
still blinking to note our 0.3 mile detour add-on and we continued down the
trail and returned to our noises and singing.
Through the night Darcy and I seemed to take turns feeling
good and pulling the pace while the other slipped in behind. While climbing I felt my stomach would
tighten up and it kept slowing me down and made it so I didn’t want to eat.
Darcy stayed strong on the climbs and I used that as motivation to keep pace
rather than slip into walking. As
night hours do, there are memories and there are blurry times where time seems
to just pass and the orb of light in front of your feet is a time warp. My mind tends to wander to friends and
wondering what they might be doing.
I have to remind myself to keep eating in spite of my stomach and opted
for a few caffeinated gels to help bring my mind focus back.
After a high point in Berkeley Park and looking down at a long descent we could
see the beam of another headlamp shining back at us from the other ridge. That must be Sunrise – the point the
guys were going to run back to and make sure we made our way down into the
White River check point. When we
finally met up with them Matt and Basit said it was like watching a video game
as our two headlamps bopped down the trail on the other side of the valley. It was so nice to see the guys and to
run along with a few more feet. We
didn’t have to expel as much energy on noise making and as we dipped lower I
felt my body come back to life a bit, my stomach relaxed and I slipped into an
easier pace. The guys ran ahead to
let Mark, Fred and Austin know that we were close and we followed into the
parking lot to find hot soup, mate, coffee and plenty of snacks to refuel. With all of the humidity I had to deal
with some chafing and we both took new headlamps to make it through till dawn.
Bellies and packs full we headed out of White River and back
on to the trail. The next time we
would see the guys would be in 19 miles and at that point we had decided we
would switch to handhelds and try to move lighter for the last 13 miles. The sun would be up and the end would
be near. All of these thoughts
were encouraging. With a couple
more hours in the dark we were back to our noises and singing and now added
clapping to the regime to help save our vocal cords. Later in the route in this direction, there are not as
many climbs, but they are more significant. The climb up to Ohanapecosh Park was beautiful in the
predawn moonlight. The terrain
changed to a rocky landscape and a few snow patches got my attention to ensure
a safe crossing. Now closer to
6500 feet my stomach started to tighten again and I could feel Darcy get
stronger. I wondered if my three
weeks at sea level were a factor, but pushed that aside, because overall I felt
much stronger as a whole and had attributed that to my time in Boulder and
Colorado’s mountains. We kept our
eyes out for the trail signs to keep on track through the campgrounds and
finally started the long descent to Box Canyon where we would find our
team. About 2-3 miles from the
bottom Darcy stopped to use the trees and I blew my thousandth snot-rocket,
which led to a nose bleed. An
uncontrollable one. I moving well
on the descent and I wasn’t about to let blood pouring down my face stop the
rhythm, so after doing the mental scan of my pack I came to my gloves as the
only option to help slow the mess that was forming down my front side. At one point Darcy, running behind me,
asked to see. I turned around and
her face told me all I needed to know… ridiculousness. The best part was that the guys didn’t
even flinch at the amount of blood.
Mark asked if it was all from my nose (gauging if I’d fallen and had a
head wound) and helped me pour water on my tank top to wipe up the drying red
spots on my face, arms and legs.
Box Canyon was a longer stop and as we left we justified
that we had needed the time to refuel and regroup. Neither one of us were able to eat much on the trail anymore
so the time with the guys was key for the remainder of our miles. We ditched as much as we could and headed back out for our
final stretch. Only a few steps
out Darcy noted some serious pain in her foot. Very focused and super intense. I looked to see her limping just behind me, eyes down and
focused purse to her jaw line.
Basit had run out with us and offered to get some advil which she
accepted. Our pace slowed a
bit. Looking back on the moment
now, I never questioned if we would finish. I wondered how long the last 13 miles might take, but I
never questioned us making it back to Longmire. I wonder now if I should have questioned her finishing on
such a painful foot. At least have
suggested her to consider any long term damage. But I really didn’t doubt that we would both finish. I know she is tough, I know if I were
in the same situation I would bear down and try to motor through and I think this
deep knowing is why I didn’t even question in the moment and also why I wasn’t
surprised when something kicked in for her and I was again working to keep up
with her on the climbs.
Mark surprised us along the trail to offer some
encouragement and joined us for the few miles to Reflection Lake, the last time
we would see our crew. He helped
us think to minimize our load even more keeping only a bottle each, the Spot
and the few items I had stuffed into the Spry as we cruised through that final
aid point. We started passing more
and more hikers on this stretch and some of them knew of our effort. All of them stepped kindly aside to let
us pass and had some kind of encouraging comment.
One last river crossing and we saw Fred and Austin framing
up some final scenic shots.
Rainier was to our backs, but we both had our heads down bouncing from
rock to rock and across the log bridge leading us to the final sign… 1.7 miles
to Longmire. Safely back in the
comfort of the woods the trail widened again so that we could run side by
side. This is the moment I looked
at my watch and saw that it was 11am and felt the surge of adrenaline cause
goosebumps on my arms and legs.
Not only would we be under 24hours we were closer to 22. We didn’t pick up the pace, but we kept
running steady. The trail was
smooth and mostly downhill, Darcy started to recognize a few landmarks from her
little warm up run on Wednesday and when we finally rounded the last bend to
the sight of our crew, my parents and cameras Darcy reached for my hand to
finish the final yards together.
Both smiling and even laughing at how well this had all turned out. Better than Expected.