Day 102 goat rocks

Miles hiked: 21
Campsite: 2282.2
Weather: cloudy turned sunny turned cloudy
One word to describe the day: Rocky

This morning I woke up in the clouds. So unfortunately no sunrise for me. I love Moody clouds though so it was still very pretty. Reminds me of the Oregon coast in the winter. The first part of the day was mostly in the trees until we started to climb, today was alot of climbing. I started getting glimpses of goat rocks wilderness off in the distance. Goat rocks is a place I've wanted to see for a while and just had not made the time. The further I got into goat rock, the more beautiful it was. Today was definitely my favorite day on trail yet. The moment I saw Rainier I started to cry. I cried the first night I got to the southern terminus and I hadn't cried since. The first cry was tears of fear and worry. This cry was tears of happiness. For the first time, I truly feel proud about what I've accomplished. I've come so far! And for some reason Rainier pulled that out of me.

In the afternoon I took an alternate called old snowy mountain. It was mostly a rock scramble up to a beautiful 360° view with a tiny bit of what felt like rock climbing 😅. I saw Adams, Rainier, surrounding goat rock mountains and beautiful lakes. Seriously so beautiful. The next section is a part of Trail called the knife's edge. The trail goes along the Ridgeline and is very exposed and rocky but again so beautiful. My feet were yelling at me from all the rocks and scree but I made it to a campsite with a beautiful view of Rainier. I have new shoes waiting for me at my box pickup tomorrow. They're also a half size bigger which I think I need. I'm pretty sure my feet are flattening a little bit.

Tomorrow we resupply at a tiny little spot called kracker barrel with a k. Unfortunately it's not a cracker barrel restaurant which sounds so good but I'm sure they have food.Read more