OG told us that he heard elk calls in the early morning. We couldn’t see them but headed out with our eyes peeled. The track was literally covered with elk tracks and it was clear that a whole herd of elk had passed close by us as we slept! Just a short way down the trail, though, we saw 2 small spotted fawns with the doe resting in the meadow below them.

Cloud closed in on us as we walked and we had a day of intermittent misty rain. Just enough to get us wet and to block the potential view spots and keep us moving. We hope that the forecast for clouds clearing tomorrow is accurate.

Along the way we met hiker Odie who told us he was compiling a yearbook for 2019 PCT hikers like he did last year. We will probably contribute our photo and details and buy a copy in due course. It will be good to see how other hikers we have met went and have contact details for them.

We completed 25.2 miles and are retiring to the tent after a dinner of mushroom risotto and couscous followed by a hot drink. We are still in cloud and misty rain but occasionally the sun pokes through.

After a night of gastric upset and d’s and v’s, I felt like just staying in bed. We had arranged to meet Jean at the Chinook Pass trailhead 5 miles away at 8:30-ish so OG headed off at the usual starting time but Rob and I were slower to get going. I started to feel a bit better as the hours passed.

Bridge over highway at Chinook Pass

We took our food supplies from the van, said goodbye to Jean and walked a short mile or so to a lakeside where I was able to lie down and have a snooze. I was awoken by a chipmunk running over my leg.

Feeling better, we all hiked on up the hill and enjoyed more mountainside scenery including a closer view of about 20-30 mountain goats (you will recall that they are the fluffy white ones whereas the mountain sheep are brown, short haired and look like goats. OG pointed out an elk in the distance but it moved into the shade before we could see it clearly.

We only managed 15.6 miles today however we passed another milestone – less than 1000 miles left to go!