Stehekin to Stevens Pass

After a nice river bath at the High Bridge trailhead, we caught a ride into Stehekin from the shuttle. We made it in there just in time for dinner and then headed over to the Ranger Station there to figure out where to camp-- it's free to camp there! The campground there and the overflow campground were full so we camped in the emergency camping... outside of the Ranger Station. Still dirty, but super ready to sleep, we made out way to the grassy area and set up camp, which means... we pulled our pads and sleeping bag out and hit the hay.

We woke up, rented some bikes and made our way to the bakery. The food is DELISH! We ate our sweets while talking to a couple other hikers-- Charlie Day Hiker and Jolly. After an hour or so we made our way back to town but not until after we stopped by the community garden and tried some of the local goat cheese! Yum!The rest of the day consisted of gathering food for the next 5 days and hanging out with other PCT hikers. Sort of a lazy day. The weather was hazy from the smoke from a close fire. Ferd jumped in Lake Chelan and nearly forgot how to breath. :) We ate leftover foods with some other hikers, got slightly cleaner and made camp again in front of the Rangers Station.

Lake Chelan

The beautiful and serene Lake Chelan

Wasp sting. Ouch!

We finally made it out of Stehekin after making some phone calls and eating some yummy breakfast foods at the Lodge. We hiked about 15 miles once back on the trail hoping to meet up with some other hikers-- Lupine and Salt Lick. It was getting dark and there were blow-downs so we decided to make camp in the middle of the slanted floor of the forest. It turned out to be a comfy spot for sleeping but we had to deal with deer the whole night! What is up with the deer here? We tried throwing sticks to get them to back off but they were far too curious and too comfortable with the human presence to care. Deep in our dreams (about deers in camp, actually), Ferd woke up to the sound of a wild animal screaming nearby and the sound of something being chased. Looking quickly around to see where the commotion was, he found Dangit on all fours chasing a deer off-- apparently she had woken up from deer dreams to find a deer nearly 3 feet away from her head and couldn't take it anymore!

A particularly large blow down

After breaking camp, we crawled over some trees and made our way through the brush and up some more mountains. We ran into Lupine and Salt Lick finally but decided to head on about 5 miles past where they were camped. We walked along a new route over the Suiattle River which takes you through a beautiful forest of large cedar trees. There's a new route because the old log over the river was destroyed-- it was a mighty fierce river. We hiked into the night and ran into some thru-riders who were trying to find different routes around down trees for their horses. Those were some courageous ladies to be riding their horses through that sort of country. We found some camping shortly after and made camp next to a couple other hikers. In the middle of the night it started to rain... this actually was the beginning of 3 straight days of thick fog and rain.

Corn Lillies up close

We hiked toward Fire Creek Pass-- this whole section so far has been quite difficult but also rewarding. The views have been spectacular but we've definitely had to work for them-- there have been so many down trees! We made it to the pass and had to hike over some snow. We've actually been looking forward to having some snowy terrain since we didn't get much of it in the Sierra. Once down the pass and past Mica Lake (which is still frozen), we passed another hiker who actually was someone Ferd's sister used to work with-- small world! After talking for a bit, we continued on to find a flat spot for sleeping. It was starting to get dark and it didn't look promising until we found a small spot just down from the trail. We made camp while it started to sprinkle a bit. We made sure that our tent was up good and just as we were starting to doze off, it started to pour! Then it started to flood! All of our things were floating on a pond of rain water! Nooooo! We stuffed our sleeping bag inside of a plastic bag and started to dig a trench. Once sort of under control, we made our bed and fell back asleep. Until.... it started to pour again! What?!?! A new puddle? While Ferd continued to work on a new and improved trench, Dangit sat on her pad praying to the rain gods to stop the rain or at least slow it down. We finally were able to get a couple hours of sleep.

We finally meet up with Steven "Twinkle"

A glimpse of Glacier Peak!

Marmot!

We got up at 9am... sleep in much? Usually we wake up with the sun but it was so foggy we couldn't tell what time it was. We packed up and hiked in the fog. We had to ford over several creeks-- one of which was up to our shorts. What an adventure! We ran into a couple hikers who also were drenched from the night of torrential rains. After about 20 miles of hiking without being able to see more than 20 feet around us due to the thick fog, we made camp on a pass. It was slightly windy but didn't seem like the weather could get much worse. Just kidding! We woke up in the dark with pouring rain and the beginning of some flooding... and lightning. Not again! Turns out it was 5am so we packed our things and ran. All we can think about now and a nice try bed and yummy food. Can't wait to get to Stevens Pass!

Eerie fog

Scary looking broken bridge ford

We hiked another 20 miles to Janus Lake... another day in fog. No sun at all. Fortunately, we were able to dry our things out a little bit during lunch before it started to rain again. Because of our early start, we were able to make it to camp early-- about 5pm. We ate about 3 dinners to get rid of food and made sure to set our tarps up so that no rain could ever find it's way into our beds. BEST SLEEP EVER! There was no rain and we were actually warm and slightly dry.

10 more miles and we're at Stevens Pass. The morning went by super fast with us dreaming of foods we could eat at the moment-- one of our favorite games. Within minutes of sticking our thumbs out, we got a 15 mile hitch to a Shell gas station. We got some snacks and made our way to the road again. Within minutes of sticking out our thumbs, we got another hitch from a couple who actually hiked the trail last year! They're on vacation and brought us to Leavenworth, bought us lunch and invited us to stay with them in their cabin! YES!! BEST DAY EVER!

At the cabin with our new friends

The plan is to run all our errands, head back to the cabin, get so fresh and clean, sleep tight and head out tomorrow. We are so lucky to be able to experience the PCT, wonderful people, dry beds and yummy foods!