My giddiness in the morning must have been the cause to my early rise for I awoke just before the break of day and was on the road before the sun was out. I even wore my rain pants and hoodie for warmth from the morning air. The day before my clock had died so I couldn’t say what time it was when I set off. I can say I walked 12 miles that morning and took one break to eat my chocolate chip cookie dough Slimfast bar and shed the extra layers to get in to Charlie’s Café in Enumclaw by 11:15am. My guess is that I set out around 6:30 to 6:45.
Charlie’s was quite a great place. A typical diner style café, but I just had a good time there, maybe because of my excitement, maybe because my waitress was quite cool. I got a delicious mushroom Swiss burger with fries and some coffee and told her, and some of the customers asking, about my trip. I doled out some cards and even invited them to the barbeque my sister was planning for the next day’s arrival. The idea that I was a day away from setting my feet in the Pacific salt water of Puget Sound and finishing up this long trek was one having trouble sinking fully into my head. I set off again by 12:30 via Shirlee’s instructions toward a short cut trying to wrap my head around the concept.
Down the country roads the land got a little rolly. My final highway was to be County Road 169 and when I followed it into Black Diamond the hills cropped up to slow me down. It worked. When I got into Black Diamond I had come up over a decent sized hill to find a gas mart at the top. Shirlee had told me of the world’s greatest pastry place there so I stopped in to find where it was. It turns out there are two pastry places in town. Not knowing which to make for I sat down and had some candy bars.
I stayed for a bit, but not too long, leaving within forty minutes or so. Both pastry places were along the way but money was slipping away quite quickly nearing the end and I couldn’t very well stop and sample them both. In the end I passed them both up.
The hills persisted and grew in size as I went. Getting out of Black Diamond I was presented with a doosey of a hill going over a bridge as well. It climbed up a good three quarters to a full mile before leveling off and as I huffed and puffed over the top I spotted the first of what would be my variation of a finish line paved with gold. It was a guard rail with wood posts perfect for sitting and balancing Checks on set among a sprawling patch of juicy, ripe blackberries. I sat, plucked, and ate for a good fifteen minutes. Before leaving I pulled my old Doritoe trick of stock piling some in my hand so I can move away from them while eating so I don’t get stuck plucking “just one more”.
The way in to Maple Valley was lined ever more with blackberry bushes occasionally foiling the Doritoe escape plan. With restraint, though, I was able to pass them by mostly, or at least stop simply to load up the hand rather than pick and eat straight off the vines so I could keep moving. I figured I’d get some water on the northern edge of town on my way out along with a treat perhaps, so that I could cook up the last of my food at camp that night. Wandering my way through town I found a Food Mart gas station place and stopped in around 6:30 or so.
The cashier girl was very cool there and didn’t care I wasn’t really in to buy anything. She let me use the bathrooms then hung out with me as I sat and looked over some of the more local maps, showing me what was housing on the blank spots and what was woodsy. Around 7 she told me she had to toss all the hot dogs on the grill so if I wanted them I could have them. Provided with a plastic bag I loaded up on about 12 or 13 of the little grubbers and sat back down eating about five of them right off. It was time to go at that point so I took my booty and headed out of town.
On my way out I still wanted a sweet treat and I hadn’t filled up on water while I was there. The girl had told me of a market a mile up the road so I stopped in there to pick up my dessert and water. The dessert was something I’d been craving for many weeks at this point but was denying it due to its true sense of awfulness to the world of the healthy. Cookie dough. I could stand it no more and bought a roll of sugar cookie dough for my final night of camping.
Getting out of town proved to be a bit of a chore. Despite the mapped guidance and commentary at the Food Mart I still found myself stranded in the straggling sprawl of residential housing. True it was foresty and woodsy, but every tree laden hideaway was private property of some nearby home that threatened spotting me and booting me out. The sides of the road were two narrow for just plopping down and the road was simply too busy and populated for me to really feel comfortable doing that anyway. The sun sagged well into its final resting mode as I scurried in and out of possible prospects. I was once again reminded of the east coast beginnings last spring.
Going a mile beyond what I’d figured in my search, with the sun now tucked away and pulling its blanket of light down with it, I decided to just brave a less hidden spot. There’d been a walkway under construction following along side me heading out of Maple Valley and the barrier between it and the road had gone from a dip to a rise shrouding it from the traffic. On the other side was a river and beyond that houses tucked behind trees so I figured it was my only chance to hide away. I ducked over, found a decent spot and set up as the sky grew dark.
Once finally down I set up for dinner. I was so tired though that I decided being the last night out I’d cook in the tent as I’d done from Georgia to Kansas. The difference here was that given how seldom I cooked on this leg I still had the gas from Denver and had never refueled so it was quite low. I thought little of it and pumped the gas up to light the stove. It lit, then faded, then went out. I pumped some more while it was attached and nothing happened. Then I detached it, pumped again, then reattached and tired gassing her up once more. Out came the lighter as the stove sat waiting on my nationwide map book and PHWOOMP! A fireball erupts from the tank singing my leg hairs as I sat Indian style and catching my map into little glowing embers. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing for some time.
Once cooked the dinner of scalloped potatoes turned out quite tasty and I even flavored it with bits of the hot dogs I’d been given. That with my hot cocoa and having eaten seven or eight hot dogs by that point I was stuffed and couldn’t bare to eat my cookie dough. Another time. I did the dishes then fell to sleep.