Day 127, August 22: Mile 2168 to 2191

• Start: Mile 2167.9

• End: Mile 2191.4

• Miles: 23.5

• Ascent: 6155 | Descent: 3888

This was a hard day. It started out okay, though I had a hard time waking up. We had a steady climb to tackle first thing in the morning, but we were rewarded with a nice morning break at a large creek. Along the way in the morning, my hiking pole broke when the twist-to-lock mechanism stopped working, but thankfully I was able to fix it by wrapping it in a bunch of Leukotape. Leukotape- not just for blisters!

We took a lunch break at a campground where there was a pit toilet (woo!), and afterwards, Squirrel Daddy let us know he was going to split off from the group and take a road walk shortcut around a portion of the trail, just to try something different. We said a farewell and a see you later.

After lunch, there was another big climb, and I struggled HARD on this one. I had a gnarly blister that has formed on one of my heels again, and I was generally not feeling great. It seemed that anytime I wore new shoes on trail, I got terrible blisters requiring me to take a zero after three days of hiking in them. I had gotten new shoes in Cascade Locks and this time around seemed no different.

I stopped to cry and take a break many times on the climb, and I came into camp in tears. In addition to the friends I was hiking with, Pebbles and Princess (with whom I had hiked the OCT) were in the same camp area, and Pebbles kindly offered me a Snickers bar to try to bring my spirits up, which worked a bit. We ate dinner with a gorgeous view of Mount Adams to the south, awash in a sunset glow, and retired to bed.