Day 12 - Snoqualmie Here We come!! — Walking People Out of Poverty

walkingpeopleoutofpoverty.ca is the personal blog of Peter Thorpe, long-time Opportunity International Canada supporter and Walking People Out of Poverty founder. For Dan Murray’s blog and information on OIC, please click here.

Start Time: 7:00 am
End Time: 9:30 am
Start Mileage: 2391.10
End Mileage: 2395.80
Distance Walked: 4.70 miles

One of the disadvantages, in fact it’s probably the only one I can think of, is I’m always the last person to get into my sleeping bag and actually settle down to sleep. Having said that, I love doing the blog because I believe it’s important to keep all those folks who follow the blog informed of what’s been happening. It’s especially important to me to let all those people who have made a donation aware of what we’ve been up to. And again I would like to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your kindness. I cannot thank you enough. I also know both Cameraman, (aka Board Chair), and Huckleberry, (aka CEO), share my sentiments. You and your donations mean the world to us, and it is this kindness and generosity that is keeping us motivated during the most difficult times along the trail.

I was up early this morning as I had promised to make the guys coffee before leaving for town. It gave me the opportunity to pack my sleeping bag and mattress away and organize my other items, most of which will fit into my bear canister which is seriously lacking food now that we are heading into town.

We set out at around 6:45 am and we were all under the impression it was downhill to Snoqualmie. Wrong! Straight away we were heading up but it wasn’t anything major. The real problem was the footing, or rather the trail itself.

None of us enjoyed coming down from Mirror Lake yesterday, and we all thought it was some of the poorest trail we had experienced. It was nasty, and you could not get any type of rhythm going. Still we pushed on and after an hour or so we stopped for a water break.

5 minutes later we were back on our way and making the final push to our destination. I was leading the way with Cameraman just behind me followed by Woody and Payday and Huckleberry . A short way ahead I could see a dog and lady and asked if it was Lucie and Mary. Turns out it was Paydays wife and their 2 year old pup. It was lovely to see Lucie bounding up the hill to greet Payday and I’m not sure who was more excited!!!

We finally made it down the steepish slope to Snoqualmie and quickly located our hotel. We made immediately to the Pancake House for breakfast although Dan decided to go and check the OIC contingent in. The hotel is huge and after breakfast we went to our rooms for the obligatory shower to wash away 6 days of dirt and grime before tackling our laundry. From the hotel reception it was about 96 paces to the laundry and 96 paces back. By my reckoning it’s as close to 100 yards as you can get. Forget about hiking the PCT, May as well get a job at the Summit Hotel!!

During the afternoon Dan and I sat together working on the blog when in walked a couple of Germans, Crispy and her husband Propeller, who were from Cologne. Dan had been in Cologne on OIC business just before this hike and Crispy was intrigued by Opportunity International’s business model. Crispy was interested in a volunteer position with a non profit and I think Dan was going to try and sort something out with his counterpart in Cologne which is where the organization is based.

Now for a few pictures.