More Hike-a-Thon 2013

This is what always happens to me this time of the year: cross country starts, and I have no time to finish updating my hike-a-thon info.  I'm super late with this thing this year!

I left off on National S'mores Day, August 13th, a day on which I had no s'mores.  Seriously, who would make National S'mores Day in the middle of August?  It's not safe to have a campfire, and microwave S'mores just don't cut it.  S'mores day should be in June, in order to kick off the good backpacking season.  And it should always fall on a Saturday.  Okay, off my soapbox...
August 13: I ran the Little Loop route on Antoine Peak.  And I was slow.  And hurting.  I wonder why?  It was 3.77 miles.
August 14: I ran the trail 110 to trail 100 to Hay Ridge Loop, and I still felt terrible.  It was 7.2 miles.  I wrote a trip report for this one: find it here.
August 15: I did a very nice huckleberry hike today.  It was about time to slow down and give my legs a rest, plus I wanted some huckleberries.  I started near Cook's Cabin and went down to Saddle Junction, then up to the summit of Mt. Kit Carson, then across to the Saddle near Day Mountain, then returned via trail 130 and the new trail 140 reroute.  The reroute looks...um...awful.  Rather depressing.  But the huckleberries helped to cheer me up.  4.6 miles.
August 16:  I went to the Dishman Hills and did the same loop that I did on the morning of August 2.  5 miles.  After that I met Jeff & we drove to the Twisp area for a weekend backpack trip.
August 17:  Today showed how things don't always turn out how you imagine.  We camped at the trailhead Friday night and got an early start for the backpack.  I was hoping we'd make it to Sunrise Lake...but just a little over 2 miles in, Jeff said he was really feeling terrible.  Food poisoning, we determined later.  We turned back early.  We passed so many dirt bike riders on the way out, followed by so many mountain bike riders, that we decided perhaps we were better off going elsewhere instead (4.5 miles with full pack).  Then we looked at the map and picked a campground where Jeff could pitch his tent and take a nap, whereas I could go for an afternoon trailrun in order to pick up some extra miles.  We went to South Creek, where I ran 8.5 miles.  Then we drove up to the dead-end of the road to a place that was marked as a historical site on the map, but that turned out to be nothing much, as far as we could tell.  There were a few tumble-down buildings, and I think it was maybe an old mining site.  It was interesting, but I expected an interpretive sign after the way the map looked. 
August 18:  Jeff was feeling mostly better, so we decided to hike to Louis Lake for 11.4 miles.  Read my trip report here.  Then we returned home, and Jeff, who knew about it beforehand, told me to wait while he grabbed his newspaper...where this article appeared in the Outdoor section!  Rich is a tricky guy...I figured he intended to write about our backpack trip, but I didn't know he would write about me, too!  It's also great to go hiking with a professional photographer: check out the online slideshow here.

Okay, I'll have to finish this up another time.  It's dinner time for me.  I'm feeling a little bummed that on the other side of the state right now, the other Hike-a-Thoners are having the big H-a-T celebration party.  :(  I still remember explaining to someone one time that no, Spokane is not a suburb of Seattle...hopefully one of these years I can attend the party, though.  It would be cool to actually meet some of the other people who do H-a-T!  I've never met another H-a-T-er on the trail, and the only other Spokanite I know of who does it is Todd.  You hear that Spokanites?  It's about time a few more of you come fundraise while you play!