It was nice to sleep in. I set my alarm for 7:30, but I woke up before it went off and found myself ready to face the day. Not very long before it went off, but enough that I didn’t get jerked out of my interesting dreams by it.
I had a lot I wanted to accomplish before hitting the road for Moscow, so I got right to it. I walked to the mailbox to check my mail. I watered my lilac, trees, and potatoes. I did my workout and drank a protein shake. I put up the dishes I’d done the night before. A shower was followed by breakfast. Though I usually reserve the microwave Jimmy Deans breakfast sandwich for work days, I figured I’d do one today so I didn’t have to think of something else. Plus, that’s a very minimal dish dirtier.
I got the car loaded up. On one of the trips, I double checked the front passenger seat to discover that my knife and whistle had been there all along. I could have sworn that I’d checked there last night. I definitely went outside and looked in the car, but I didn’t completely clear off the seat. It has become the repository of stuff since I no longer have anyone in that seat 95% of the time. Maybe 99%. The last time I had a passenger was in June when my parents were visiting. Before that… I think I was the last passenger before that when my parents were in town last August. So the passenger seat is essentially my car’s junk drawer.
I’m just glad that I found the knife and especially the whistle. The knife will get replaced, probably sooner than later, but that whistle is a keepsake. If it ever breaks, I’m keeping the pieces. I don’t know that I’ll ever find one as good, and I know I won’t find another one with as much sentiment attached.
I put the trash in the outside bin and washed the breakfast dishes before I left. It was a bit after ten, which was just fine. I stopped at the coffee stand in town and got an Americano with cream and a blueberry muffin. I gave them my own cup to fill, and got it back filled to the absolute brim. I tried sipping it down to no avail and had to give it back to them to dump a little so I could put my top on it. I appreciated that they didn’t try to underfill it at least.
The audiobook that I chose for this trip was Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. I’ve mostly read Moon’s Paksennarion books, and I wasn’t quite convinced with this one at first, but it started to grow on me. I’ll definitely finish it. The protagonist is a woman in her 70’s, which is different for science fiction.
The drive to Moscow was uneventful. There was a bit of construction along 95 in various places, but nothing that caused major traffic disruptions. I had to wait at a few signals where there were single lanes across bridges, but the waits weren’t very long. I stopped to use the bathroom three times, so a total of four stops, with an early afternoon arrival time.
The afternoon was spent catching up and watching my friend cook dinner (spaghetti and meatballs). We made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some Jimmy Deans breakfast sandwiches for an easy breakfast option tomorrow morning. We’re hoping to be on the road by 5, so my alarm is set for 4:30. I’ll shower tonight. It’ll be 4 and a half or 5 hours to the trailhead, so the sooner I can get there, the better. Depending on which source I look at, I’ll have 7 or 8 miles to go to get to my first campsite.
This trip will be 5 days, so I won’t be posting again until Thursday or Friday. I might post Thursday, but I’m not going to force it. I’ll probably be hiking out around noon and then having that 4 to 5 hour drive before I reach internet again. I’ll be staying Thursday and Friday night in Moscow and driving home on Saturday.
My friend had some paper maps of the area I’ll be hiking, and was kind enough to lend one to me so I won’t be entirely without backup to the GPS. I feel safer that way, even if I don’t use the paper maps. I also got a picture of a map that only had a small, but important, part of my trail. Ambrose taught me to bring those paper maps and not rely on electronics alone. I need to buy myself a decent quality printer and start printing out my own maps from the free downloads available. That will be cheaper, in the long run, than buying the printed ones.
I was going to do this trip last year, with Ambrose driving me. I had the dates off of work and everything. It would have been a bit later in August, because I had been planning to bring my nieces out in early August. I’m glad to be getting out there and making this trip happen even though I wish it could have been with him supporting me as he had already for so many miles of the Idaho Centennial Trail. I hope to someday do the whole thing as a thru hike. I think the southbound option makes the most sense, because then you can start late enough in the season that the high sections won’t be covered in snow and end late enough that the dessert won’t be unbearably hot. But I still want to finish my section hike.
I wish I had more time for backpacking in my life. I’d love to go out for a month and do three or four backpacks interspersed with camping and maybe a hotel night or two to catch a shower. Drive around on the dirt roads and explore new trails. Home for a week and then out again for another four weeks. What a summer that would be. I want to start exploring trails closer to home. Check out what the Seven Devils has to offer. Things I would have done with Ambrose that I’ll now be doing on my own. But feeling him with me, especially out there.
It’s just about time to get ready for bed so I can try to get 8 hours of sleep. I mean, I’ll be in the passenger seat so I could probably nap, but I rarely nap while in a moving vehicle. And a lot of this drive will be new territory for me, so I’ll be more inclined to sightsee than shut my eyes. I hope that I dream of Ambrose tonight, even if I don’t remember in the morning.