Ah, cake walk: the name given to the experience of hiking the entire Kettle Crest in a day. Months ago we picked August 6th as the date of this year's cake walk. At one point I think there were 8 or 10 of us planning to do it. Derrick said we'd better cap it at that so it didn't go too big; it's 43 unsupported miles, after all. Then the attrition started.
Derrick had a meeting, Deb became injured, Aaron and his siblings bowed out, I got sick, and I don't even know what happened to the others. In the end, it was down to just Jeff H.; Deb and I were the shuttle, and I would get in what mileage I could along the way.
Jeff got started at 5am; I was going to join him as far as White Mountain, but I slept through my alarm and decided I'd better just join him for a later section, instead. Deb and I got to sleep in, then we packed up and drove to Sherman Pass to wait for Jeff. I joined him from there as far as the Columbia Mountain Trail, and then I did the loop and went up to the summit to check out the rebuilt lookout cabin. My morning mileage was 8.
After that Deb and I drove to Republic for lunch and to check out town, and then we continued up to Boulder/Deer Creek Summit to set up camp and wait for Jeff to arrive. I felt pretty good on the morning hike, so I decided to try an afternoon trailrun. At first I was just going to do an out-and-back on the Kettle Crest trail, but on the kiosk near the trailhead I found a sign describing the Deer Creek Summit Loop--South, 7.1 miles, and I decided to run that instead. Well, it was really more like wogging--at first I just walked all steep uphills plus whenever I had a coughing fit, but after awhile I was just taking periodic walking breaks. I was a little tired!
When I got back Deb had gotten the campfire started, and we spent the evening roasting sausage for dinner, having s'mores for dessert, and watching the stars and meteor showers (no light pollution!). Jeff finished just after midnight with a very sore knee but no other problems.
Today's mileage = 15.1 (now that's more like it!)
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