Saturday, August 8, 2026
15.44 miles, 4501′ gain/4747′ loss
I was up at 5:30 and out by 6:30am, despite a long downhill walk to the privy. It was a 50-degree low overnight. My pillow and sleeping mat both needed to be reinflated twice overnight, but overall my sleep was pretty good.
After my morning climbs and some lovely marmot interactions, I ran into a ranger by the 1915 patrol cabin and learned that Sunrise is under a full evacuation for fire risk. Most WT thruhikers will have to completely change their plans. But we’re lucky – we’ll be able to finish our loop since we’re going counter-clockwise and already passed by that entire section.
I arrived at Longmire at 12 noon. I retrieved our bucket from the ranger station, even though it wasn’t on their inventory list. I looked at the National Park Inn’s restaurant’s menu and was immediately overwhelmed so I found an outdoor outlet, set up my battery and phone to charge, and bought food and drinks at the gift shop for much less than the restaurant charges.
I went to the ranger station for a while for their Wi-Fi, where I was able to call Toby and chat with him for a while. Then I headed back to my shady spot with an outlet next to the Inn and close to the gift shop. Emily and Jacob arrived around 3:15pm. They’d paused to soak Emily’s feet and back in a cold creek a few times, since her heat rash has spread from her feet up her legs and onto her back.
We chatted, and they enjoyed some cold sodas and food from the gift shop in the shade. I took some of Emily’s gear to lighten up her pack and I headed out around 4pm to get to Paradise River camp and reserve our tentsite. As I headed out, I paused to chat with Ranger Ellie for a bit, talking long trails like the AZT.
The 3.5 miles to camp were hot (83 degrees actual) riddled with dayhiking humans who mostly didn’t understand the need to yield to uphill traffic. I assisted them in this lesson. There were some pretty waterfalls which I thankfully had to myself, though I felt the need to not pee until arriving at camp.
I got at camp around 5:15pm, and had my pick of sites 2 or 3, settling on Site 3. It looks like there are folks in the group site and Site 1 already. The camp is fine, but it’s a very long uphill slog to get to the sites. I needed to descend to get water for the night, but there was a beautiful river only a 5-minute walk down the trail, with spots for full-body soaking in the cold water. The 3 of us enjoyed a rinse on our final night.
