Mile 2425.3 – 2454.2 Mig Lake.

The wind blew with a welcome fury last night. As I lay in my tent, the evergreens bent and groaned with each successive gust. In my sheltered spot, only occasional gusts came to ruffle the flaps of my tent.

When I woke in the morning and popped my head out, I could see the trees on the opposite mountain slope and a light blue sky was starting to be illuminated. The smoke had cleared!

As we began to walk, I looked around at my surroundings anew. It was like the curtains had just been parted on a stage. Perhaps best of all was the air itself. I could feel the oxygen fill my lungs as I took deep breaths. Yesterday, I had joked that if a doctor looked at my lungs he would think I was a chain smoker.

Bedazzled and I began the process of climbing and descending as we walked. We have quickly learned that Washington doesn’t have much flat ground in the North Cascades. We repeated the ups and downs throughout the day and got some nice views of the alpine lakes below. This is the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, after all.

I imagine the Sky Lakes Wilderness in Oregon must have looked like this too, but sadly we couldn’t see because of all the smoke.

In the afternoon, clouds started to move in and we found ourselves climbing in the clouds. The surrounding peaks played peak-a-boo as they occasionally poked their heads out of the clouds to say hello.

Bedazzled was determined to stay close in the afternoon and she kept up on most of the climbs, like I knew she always could. It was nice to enjoy our first smoke free day in weeks together.

At the top of our last climb for the day, we ran into Peanut and Lady. It was good to see them again, and we talked for a bit. They said their group is slowing down and doing about 20 miles per day. They worked hard to be in Washington early so they want to enjoy it. I can’t falt them for that. From previous experience, however, I know how unpleasant Washington can be in late September once the cold rain and snow starts. Bedazzled and I will continue on doing mid to upper 20s so we can hopefully finish before the weather turns.

We all camped at Mig Lake, which was up in the clouds. You could hardly see from one side to the other.