Mile 2237.9: More rain and misery

9/8/2010
Even though it's light enough to hike by 6:15, it is too dark to believe it is time to start getting ready at 5:30. So I keep leaving at 6:45. Burnin' daylight!

Today was a math intensive day. I talked to Sweet 16 about speeds, mileages, and end dates when she passed me. Then I relayed that to Micro and we talked some more trail math when she passed me. Micro and 16 discussed the topic further when she passed 16, 16 and I continued at lunch, and I wrapped it up with Micro when I caught up to her at her lunch spot.

Sweet 16 and I had a good laugh at Micro's expense as we talked mileages. We don't quite understand how Micro conceptualizes and thinks about days and mileages, but it's definitely different from how we do it, and often wrong. For instance, today. Each section in Washington is evenly divisible by 25 miles, very convenient since that's our daily goal. We left Hood River at 5 pm, Sweet 16 and I figure that we'll do 150 miles in six 24-hour periods, and get into White Pass at 5 pm. If we leave White Pass at 10 am, we'll do the 100 miles to Snoqualmie Pass in four 24-hour periods and get to Snoqualmie at 10 am. Somehow, this line of logic does not work for Micro. We had a very exasperating and irritating (mostly for Micro, I was too amused to be very pissed) conversation today, me trying to convince her that if we eat breakfast with her parents in Snoqualmie and don't increase our daily average, we'll be getting into Snoqualmie at the very inconvient time of late-morning. She swore up and down that we'd be getting in during the evening, finally spelling it out for me:
"Look, let's say we leave by 10. Then we'll probably get 20 miles in the first day (optimistic estimate). The next day we'll do 25, which means 55 total, then another 25 the day after that, so 80 total, then we'll only have to do 20 miles the last day and we'll get in during the evening." Great logic, dear, except it's wrong. This happens every single section, usually multiple times.

It rained more persistently and harder today. I'm worried about tackling the Goat Rocks Wilderness if it stays stormy.


- Typoed on my iPhone