Day 138 Mile 2454.2 – 2421.6.

The sound of rain falling woke me up in the middle of the night. It would come in waves pattering softly against my tent. I went in and out of sleep until I was jolted awake by a large rock fall from somewhere across the lake.

When my alarm went off, I didn’t move and I didn’t hear any sounds coming from Bedazzled’s tent so I went back to sleep.  We finally got moving around 7:30 and I was suited up in my full rain gear for the first time. I added a pair of rain pants to my gear in Cascade Locks. There is a lot of vegetation along the trail in Washington and even if it has stopped raining, your legs will constantly be soaked and cold unless you have some protection.

We only had 7 or so miles to Stevens Pass and the terrain wasn’t too difficult. When we came into view of the pass and highway, we were surprised to see RVs, vans and tons of mountain bikers fully decked out in armor. It turned out there was a big race at the ski resort that sits at the pass. As we walked through the parking lot, some people called us over. Amidst all the mountain bikers were two guys doing some trail magic! We got some sandwiches and cinnabuns and then went out to hitch to Skykomish.
We weren’t sure if we would spend the night in Skykomish, but the town is a little over halfway point through Washington and seemed like a good rest spot. We went to the Cascade Inn to pick up our package and eat lunch. While we were there, it started to rain and I quickly went to the front desk to book a room. If you are in the Stevens Pass area, I recommend it.

Day 139 Mile 2421.6 – 2484.1

After a nero (near zero miles walked) in Skykomish, we returned to the trail to start the second to last leg of the trail. Our hitch was a retired downhill snowboard racer who was taking his 2-year-old son to watch the mountain bike races at Stevens Pass.

We started back on trail at 10:00 and had beautiful blue skies overhead. Gone were the rains of yesterday. The hillsides were starting to show fall colors of orange, red and yellow as the heather and other plants changed color. Washington is becoming even more beautiful.

We passed by many day hikers and weekend backpackers on the trail. Lake Valhalla seemed to be a popular overnight destination since it isn’t too far from the trailhead and the terrain to it is relatively easy.

I decided not to listen to any podcasts today and just enjoy the sounds of the trail. It was a nice return to my original hiking style before I started to distract myself with podcasts midway through Northern California. We had lunch at a nice lake and once we started back on trail, we could see Glacier peak on the horizon. It is one of the more remote old snowy volcanos of the North Cascades. Over the next couple days, we will walk towards and around the base of it.

The views are starting to get good again and Bedazzled and I are both excited about the last two sections of the trail. We have been told there is good stuff all the way to the border.