At 6:30am on Wednesday, the 5 of us stumbled off of the Amtrak and into the blazing sunrise of Wenatchee, Washington. We couldn’t check into our sketchy Motel 6 until 3pm, but luckily, the very sleepy overnight front desk agent let us store our backpacks in a back room that used to be a sauna but is now occupied by old mattresses and broken air conditioners. The perfect place for hiker jetsam.

We wiled away the hours by getting extraordinary coffee from a place called Mela, then walking around the adorable downtown getting a few last minute items. We spent a long time in a place called Arlberg Sports, that I absolutely adored. I needed to replace my sunglasses and short-sleeve hiking shirt, and the store was perfect. The employees there, Melia and Abby, were so kind and encouraging. Melia identified that Dumptruck and I, in our floppy hats, looked like the little Oyster people from The Walrus and the Carpenter. This made me so happy, is very accurate, and now I’ll never be able to unsee it. We’ll do what we can to avoid getting eaten by any cheeky sea mammals.

Today Whistle and her wife M completed their cross-country drive with their marvelous dog Kodak. They are staying at a motel just down the street, and we’ll be meeting them tomorrow at the trail head to start our southbound journey. We got to see them for a moment this afternoon, give brief hugs, and snuggle Kodak who, in his dog way, seemed joyously flabbergasted at his pals suddenly showing up at his motel door after being in the backseat of a car for over 2,500 miles.

This evening we took an obligatory dip in the motel pool, and now we’re doing laundry while wearing our rain gear. We haven’t even started hiking yet, but man are we method acting. For further proof: yesterday I changed into the shirt I’d purchased 5 minutes previously while standing in the middle of the sidewalk, and earlier we all took naps face-down in an expanse of grass near downtown.

Our food is packed, our bags are packed, and we’re as ready as we’ll ever be. I feel like I should write something profound and meaningful, about how I’m about to embark on this radical journey, and I’m likely to learn some deep meaningful truths about life, and that all of my choices have led me up to this moment, but instead I feel like this screencap from Emperor’s New Groove kinda sums it all up for me:

Love,

Thresher