Day 164 Leavenworth – The Walk

5.61 miles
From Glacier Lake (mile 2453.3, elevation 4846)
Toward Highway 2 near Surprise Creek Trail (mile 2467, elevation 2447)
Upload 220
Descend 2840

This morning it was not so cold or so humid. Everyone else was pretty relaxed about getting moving. At 7:30 I had already packed my bags and stood for about 15 minutes. Firefly looked almost ready to go. AKA and Mirthful had had breakfast but had not yet left their tent. So I left alone, knowing they would catch up with me soon.

This morning’s trail mainly followed Surprise Creek all the way to the end. And it fell quickly. The road was rarely easy. Almost every step was around or over a rock or tree root. And almost always downhill, so my legs got noisy with my eccentric exercise contractions. There were many waterfalls in the stream. After the first mile or so, he was also in the trees almost the entire time. My food supply is reduced to a single square of homemade granola and a dehydrated dinner. So my backpack was light.

Surprise Lake

surprise stream

The only exception was that as the trail approached the road, there were many sections of wooden walkway and stairs. There would be two felled trees parallel to each side of the path. Other logs would be roughly leveled and nailed to those two trees on the other side of the trail. It seemed like a lot of work for a trail. There were stretches of a few hundred feet of said boardwalk/trail.

Boardwalk Trail

My Achilles tendons have felt good the last few days, which has made the hike much more enjoyable. I’m not really sure why, but I’ve been stretching my hamstrings a lot and writing the alphabet with my toes to keep the blood flowing. Also, when taking breaks, I have tried to sit down and take weight off my feet.

It’s around 10:30 and I’m sitting in the emergency parking area on Highway 2. I don’t have service here so I can’t message them. So I sit back, relax, write notes, wait, and do some Thriller dancing. I have smooth, paved terrain, which makes practicing much easier than on the trail.

Thinking that AKA and Mirthful would have more success getting a hookup, Firefly and I stayed almost out of sight at the rear of the retreat. He was interested in the Thriller choreography, so I briefly taught him most of the steps. Unfortunately, he doesn’t think he’ll be anywhere they’re holding the dance.

AKA and Mirthful finally got a problem, but the car didn’t have room for all of us. They would go straight to Leavenworth and find a place to stay. Firefly and I took positions on the road to hitchhike. I continued practicing Thriller, but not while cars were approaching. I don’t have any objective data to support this, but I’m pretty sure that people are more likely to pick up normal-looking hitchhikers than those who practice being zombies.

They quickly took us to Stephen’s Pass. Once there, we found the desk to pick up boxes and then headed back to the parking lot entrance to hitchhike the rest of the way to Leavenworth. We had brief conversations with a few people before hitting the road, but none of them resulted in a ride. This time, it took much longer before any cars stopped to pick us up. And when one did, it was Avril, a hiker Firefly knew.

Leavenworth was originally a logging town that really took off when a railroad line arrived around 1900. When the railroad line was rerouted a few decades later, the town soon seemed like a ghost town. In the 1960s, the city’s leaders changed the city’s appearance to a Bavarian-themed city to attract visitors.

Once I had connectivity, I discovered that the shipment of my InReach replacement was delayed by six days. I couldn’t wait another six days in the city, so I canceled the order. While AKA was happy to continue sending me daily «I’m fine» messages, I still made it my goal to see if any stores nearby might have a replacement. Unfortunately, no nearby stores had a replacement.

Even though Leavenworth Oktoberfest is held on the weekends, he was still willing to let us celebrate during the week. We went for lunch to eat German food and beer. We checked into our hotel, the FairBridge Inn, and found that they had very good self-serve drinks (coffee, hot chocolate, cider) in the lobby. After our drinks (with a second cup to go), we wandered the streets of Leavenworth and all its Bavarian-themed shops. We also found our way to Cold Stone Creamery for some extra ice cream calories. Since we were relatively full from lunch and ice cream, we walked to Dan’s Food Market, which was small but very well stocked, to pick up some things for dinner.

Lunch at the House of the Rhine

Downtown Leavenworth

Enzian Inn has a mini golf course on real grass. This is a town where you are more likely to see the windmill in town than on its mini golf course.

cold stone dairy

Silly Fun in Leavenworth

Does this even need a title?

Playing bingo that night at Icicle Brewing

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