The morning was brisk with a clear blue sky. I woke up feeling good - I had about 23 miles and almost 4000 feet of descent between me and Metaline Falls, where I intended to take a zero day. I I started hiking fairly early, working my way up to a beautiful ridge covered in fragrant lupines.

At one clearing on the ridge, I ran into Morning Star and Cookie Monster again. We chatted about our mutual experiences of finding water after Pass Creek Pass, and the day ahead of us. Still no sign of Bugs and Moose, who I must have somehow passed the previous day.

Long descents like this are always kind of a mental game – The miles fly by, but the high-impact, wobbly steps are grating. This trail was a popular mountain bike trail, so at least it was clear and well-defined.

I passed a few old cabins like this on the way down.

I followed the extremely-aptly-named Noisy Creek all the way down to the campground. Admittedly, I was brown-blazing, which is where you hike as fast as you can to get to a pit toilet because you don’t feel like digging a hole. I ate a quick lunch at an unoccupied campsite, had a chat with the campground manager, and continued to the trail on the eastern shore of the lake after a bit of confused wandering.

The trail along the lake was very exposed, and this was the first time when I really felt like it was summer. The sun was beating down, and I was longing for shade. I couldn’t wait to make it to Metaline Falls and eat town food.

I got picked up a few miles outside of Metaline Falls (circa 0346P) by a local in a pickup truck. My policy on hitching roadwalks most of the time was that I would walk unless someone drove up to me and offered a ride, which is exactly what happened. With the sun beating down on me, it was pretty hard to refuse. The guy brought me straight to Trail Angel Mary’s house, where I had sent a care package about a month and a half previously. Mary’s son greeted me and gave me my care package, and I went off to survey the town.

Metaline Falls (pop. 238) is a quaint little town with a bar, a park with an old train car, a diner, a hotel, a grocery store, a movie theater, a library, and a school. Everyone seems to know each other, and as soon as I got there I felt like everyone in town would know where I was at all times.

I stopped at the hotel to get an ice cream cone, then sat down at the park to unpack the care package from my former self, which contained:

  • Maps from Metaline Falls to Ross Lake
  • Tiny ziploc bags full of powdered toothpaste, Tony Cachere’s Creole Seasoning, and Butt Paste
  • Razors + shaving soap
  • Powdered milk (Nido brand, full-fat)

I pored over the maps to look at what I would be facing in the next section. A lot of dry Eastern Washington roadwalking, the Kettle Crest Trail, the Okanogan Highlands, and finally, the Pasayten Wilderness (which I was most excited for).

In the late afternoon, I sat at the bar for a long time, eating french fries, catching up on emails/texts/news (on my rapidly-deteriorating phone screen, which was now half-covered by a gigantic black spot) and talking to a couple of locals. At some point while I was sitting there, I realized I had left my brand new maps in the park! I dashed out of there and back to the park, but the maps were gone. So I spent about 2 hours searching every trash can in town and asking everyone to keep an eye out. I had the whole town on the case.

Morning Star and Cookie Monster made it into town in the evening – Morning Star came over to Trail Angel Mary’s place, and the three of us stayed up talking for a while. Mary talked to us about a lot of the former PNT hikers she had met, the weather and geography of the area, her support for marijuana legalization, and her adventure hiking the Continental Divide Trail in the 70s (this is a big deal – anyone doing thru-hikes of the CDT in the 70s is a complete badass). I went to bed anxious about my maps, but decided I could print them out at the library if I needed to.

The next morning, I ate a pancake breakfast at the diner and went grocery shopping. In the afternoon, I sat at the library for a while, catching up with friends and printing out replacement maps for the set that I had lost, and ordering some replacement gear to Republic:

  • another pair of Darn Tough socks (Plum Heather color)
  • Injinji toe sock liners (anti-blister miracle workers)
  • a new phone screen and repair kit – I was going to try to do the repair myself in Republic
  • a pair of lightweight cheapo Frogg Toggs rain pants, so that I could wash both my leggings and shorts at the same time when I was in town
  • new leggings, since mine were getting big holes in a few places

My dear mother heard that my camera was broken, and immediately ordered me a replacement camera. I think she found one for like $30 on eBay. I was incredibly grateful – my phone camera takes kind of stale and lifeless photos.

I still felt disappointed in the replacement maps I printed out; the set I lost was waterproof and the prints were high-quality. These library prints were kind of blurry with bad coloration, so some of the details were harder to make out.

After I left the library, I did laundry and had a shower at the hotel, and chatted with Bugs, Moose, Morning Star, and Cookie Monster. Everyone was fresh and in a good mood. I also met Bambi and Brick, another couple of thru-hikers who had caught up to the rest of us. They were trying to finish by September 1st, so I knew I wouldn’t be seeing them for too long.

I slept a second night in Trail Angel Mary’s backyard, looking forward to getting back on the trail the next day.