This morning started bleakly with drizzling rain and swarming mosquitoes. We packed up the wet tent and moved quickly down the trail both to keep warm and to avoid the mosquitoes that had drawn new optimism from the rainy day and were attacking every time we slowed or stopped.

Around 9 am the rain stopped and, with the sun struggling to shine through, we saw clouds of steam rising from the ground all around. The track was at times a series of muddy puddles which occasionally joined to form small streams. Our wet shoes and socks started to dry as the sun shone and, when we breaked for lunch we chose an open sunny meadow where we could take them off and finish the drying process. The mosquitoes were fewer in the open area which was an enormous relief.

Directly after lunch we walked around a corner and were treated with the most spectacular view of the South Sister mountain peak iced with snow. The hike continued towards the mountain across a grassy clearing and all afternoon we were hiking in much more open ground with regular views of the mountains.

After 25 miles we have camped in a clearing with an unobstructed view of North Sister mountain. We were able to water up at a swiftly running stream – a relief after last night’s murky water – and we enjoyed our hot chicken and rice dinner supplemented with couscous and peanut butter which gave a satay chicken flavor.