July 11

Distance today: 19.8 miles

Mile marker: 166.0

This morning was cold and we didn’t want to get out of our tent. We snoozed through our 5:30 alarm to finally get up a little after 6am. Our hope that a dry night might lead to dry clothes were dashed by the morning dew that seemed to make things even more wet. We’ll eventually dry out from the rain the other day.

After some morning coffee to jumpstart our motivation, we made the final approach out of the Glacier Peak Wilderness. The climb out was spectacular! Beautiful views of Glacier Peak and the surrounding valley. This is what we missed out on yesterday.

When we made it over the crest, we got our first glance at Mt. Rainier in the distance. It seems so far away, but we’ll get there in a few weeks. And the surrounding hillside was stunning! We learned that marmots screaming sounds like cries for help from the distressed. We discovered this amongst the middle of a marmot family screaming at a nearby bounding deer. Ah, nature….

Our hike also got considerably easier. We bobbed up and down the peak, weaving between valleys, getting new views every hour.

We stopped for lunch and had the most aggressive mosquitoes yet. We washed a little in the stream. Jason had chili and rice. Alex had Mountain House biscuits and gravy.

The trail conditions were fantastic! We were zooming! It was smooth going, barely having any fallen trees to jump over. And the dry, sunny weather allowed us to dry our gear fully.

We reached camp by 6:30pm and discovered it too was mosquito infested. But we persevered, not wanting to make another 4 mile hike with 900′ ascent to the next camp – that’s for tomorrow! For dinner, Jason had beef stew and Alex had Thanksgiving surprise.

Stevens Pass is within spitting distance and we should have an easy-ish day tomorrow before getting our resupply Sunday morning.