Day 1 (103; we left the trail last year after 102 days)

Miles: 3.7

Mileage: 2,148.3 (This mile point is according to hiker Half Mile’s calculations and is the generally agreed upon mileage)

Well, we’re back at it.

After a lovely visit at our friend’s house in Bar Harbor, we flew back to our gear and spent a day switching from bike mode to hike mode.

This morning we flew out to Portland and then took a train, then a bus, then an Uber back to the trail. We revisited last summer’s stopping point for a photo, reorganized our packs so they we were ready for hiking and took off into the woods.

Almost instantly my mind went to the audio book I was listening to as we descended to the Columbia River last July.

We didn’t get to the trail until nearly 4 p.m., so we decided to take it super easy and hike to the first good tent spot. We found a bunch of spots right by Gillette Lake.

By 5:30 p.m. we had picked our tent spot, removed our shoes and rinsed in the lake.

Dinner was leftovers from the airport. We set up our Zpacks tent for the first time in a year and luxuriated in its spaciousness. It is SO much bigger than the tent we used on the bike ride. Ahhhhh!

Tomorrow we hike higher.