It rained on the tent all through the night and, although the rain stopped when we got up around 5:30, everything was wet and the clouds were low as we hiked. The path is narrow and bordered with plants whose leaves are heavy with moisture so with every step they offloaded the water into our shoes which were quickly saturated.

About 9 am the sun was shining and the clouds were lifting to reveal spectacular snow topped mountain scenery and green valleys below. We spread out our wet gear in the sun at lunchtime and took off our shoes to air our damp feet.

The day warmed up as we hiked in the afternoon but cool breezes continued to make the steep ascents more bearable.

As we wound along the path taking us to our last peak of the day, we passed a trail maintenance crew hard at work.

The marmots were also hard at work.

Down then we wound into a valley and along to our campsite 23 miles from last night’s spot.

After another hiker-sized cooked breakfast courtesy of Jean and OG, we were kindly driven back to Stevens Pass by Jean’s brother-in-law, Steve with his wife Cathy. The morning was cloudy but we hoped to hike above the clouds into a fine day.

Unfortunately, despite its best efforts, the sun did not shine through and we hiked the day in drizzle and cloud, missing most of the views.

However, the trail was well maintained and the temperature was nice and cool for hiking. We passed a lot of day hikers and counted 8 dogs that all looked happy to be out despite the weather.

After 18.4 miles we are camped beside a lake. We had Pad Thai with added ramen noodles and a couple of large spoonfuls of peanut butter to increase the calories. Hot chocolate for Robert and hot spiced apple drink for me and we are snug in our sleeping bags hearing the light rain falling on the tent.

Some more relaxing at OG’s place.

We posted supplies to Stehekin (we should be there in 5 days).

This afternoon we enjoyed being part of a large group of OG’s friends and relatives as they celebrated their daughter’s birthday with a potluck dinner.

We were able make this day a bit shorter by walking further yesterday, and only had to hike a bit less than 20 miles to get to Stevens Pass where again OG’s wife Jean met us again, so we could return to their home for a couple of days off-trail.

At the start of the day, we climbed higher out of the clouds and saw a huge sea of clouds with the peaks rising above them.

At the final hilltop before going down to Stevens Pass.

It is sometimes hard to be disciplined and get up quickly with the alarm for an early start but the last couple of days we have woken with relatively warm weather and there is strong incentive to get in as many miles as possible before we feel the full heat of the sun.

As we headed out Rob took a couple of panoramas of the mountain views and was a little behind. There was a shrill loud whistle repeated 2 or 3 times and Rob hurried towards us thinking we might be in trouble and I ran back down toward him with the same thought. We looked about for someone who might have been calling for help but couldn’t see or hear anyone. Just a bit further along we heard the same whistle again, followed by 3 more short blasts, again nobody answered when we called out. As we rounded a corner we saw a fat marmot sitting up on a rock. Although we didn’t see him call, we assume that he was making the whistling call!

A pika

As we hiked in the morning, we passed others coming from the other direction who told us that Deep Lake was really pretty so we headed there for lunch and, being as hot as it was, I took a quick dip before lunch.

Today we added another native berry to the list we have sampled on the trail here in Washington – thimble berries – they are ripening now and very tasty. Others we have enjoyed are: wild strawberries, black topped raspberries, salmon berries and huckleberries.

We hiked another 10 miles after lunch and are camped near a creek. Today’s total was 24.9 miles.

Today was our 31st wedding anniversary. We couldn’t go to a fancy restaurant but we could share a great day in stunning scenery. Around every corner there was another great view.

The only problem was that the corners were vertical as well as horizontal. There was a lot of ascending and descending today, and a lot of loose rocks and tree roots which slows our pace.

We saw more pikas and marmots and lots of lakes and peaks. The last long uphill brought us to a small alpine lake, where we camped having done 22.4 miles.

We left the beautiful Mirror Lake at our usual time of 6am. The path in parts was quite stony so we were a bit slower than usual.

That was a steep hill!

We got to the I90 highway at Snoqualmie Pass at 9:50 just as OG’s wife pulled up in her van. There is also a ski resort at the pass. We then drove to OG’s home for a rest day and to resupply for our next section.

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When we awoke we were still in cloud with lots of condensation on the tent. As we walked the sun finally shone through and it turned into a fine day.

We encountered another group of volunteers doing trail maintenance. We really appreciate their work.

The walk was mainly through forest with not many views. A highlight was being able to feast on huckleberries, strawberries and salmon berries. The strawberries were tiny but so flavourful.

A few times we have seen a small animal like a guinea pig in rocky areas. Maybe a pika?

And there are many interesting funghi.

We did 25 miles again, bringing us to a campsite at Mirror Lake. This brought us two milestones – over 1700 miles so far, and over 1000 miles hiking with OG.