final walk across the bridge for the third time

Woke up bright and early just before six to the v loud train. This one was literally on the tracks right next to where we were camping. I was wide awake after that so I started packing up and decided I would would go charge at the diner before heading out. There was tons of condensation on everyone's tent. It's so random how that works. Not a single drop on Friday. Said bye to the others and got one last delicious breakfast. It's always weird when you feel like you've gone to a place too many times. Three to be exact. Their breakfast is so good though. I don't have eclipse glasses so I wasn't sure if it was unsafe for me to go out and what time...but I left around nine or so.

I crossed the bridge for the third and final time and was so happy to not do it again. Today was calm though. No wind and very little cars. I walked on the side of the road and saw so many huge ripe blackberries! I have literally never seen them that big before. I ate so many. They were delicious. I finally got back on trail and was in the trees most of them. It was pretty hot already too. As I was walking about 10a, I started noticing it was getting darker. It was super Erie. Kind of like I was wearing a polarizer lens but I wasnt. Our eclipse time was at 1020a. I stopped by an open area and met a hiker named pacman already enjoying the show. He let me look through his glasses and it was really cool. I thought it was gonna get way darker but it didn't. The eclipse shadow was the craziest thing I ever saw. I felt like I was on another planet! After just a few seconds, it got brighter again and we started hiking. Today was a ten mile climb spread into 4K ft. Not bad but I def felt it. Full pack and lots of water on the push to camp.

Some parts of the climb were def steep. Good ole WA. Some parts were also exposed on rock and super hot. One thing I already notice about our state is that there are these huge wasps and bees. Kinda scary. Don't wanna get stung by one. Tons of hikers passed me. They must've all left the locks after the po opened. I'm taking it v slow to trout lake. My room is for sat so I am doing 15s to arrive slowly. Maybe I will leave camp later or take longer lunches. I kinda wanna get to camp early bc it looks like tons of ppl this section and don't wanna have to race ppl to camp. We'll see. Today's climb def took most of the day but was glad to stop at five. I'm pretty sleepy from the early wake up call.

I also cooked my first dinner! Rice noodle Mac and cheese that eve gave me. I turned it to tuna Mac. It was so yummy. Not quite as cold tonight for a stove but having noodles was amazing. It didn't take too long either. I love Mac and cheese forever. I've noticed cleaning out the pot and stuff can be kind of a chore and uses more water. There were bees and flies flying all around me though. That's one thing I don't like about cooking outside. I miss eating in my cozy tent. I wonder if I could cook in there. I think I'm prob at this site alone as it can barely fit another but that's okay bc a ridge is just around the corner.