Sept 15th
A totally miserable day, one of the bleakest most miserable days that I’ve ever spent hiking. Rain, incessant rain, driving and cold When we woke the snow level was less than 500 feet above us. As we hiked the cold and the wet combined to keep us pretty miserable.
Not many views, in fact no views at all more than a few hundred feet ahead. At one point we even watched a bull elk walk in front of a hunter just to end his miserable experience with this rain. OK, seriously, it was a day in which we questioned our desire to continue the hike. And my own feeling is that the rain needs to at least let up some before I will be ready to leave Skykomish after getting there later today. Quitting the trail still seems drastic, but not as unthinkable as it was even a few days ago.
With only a couple short breaks we hiked the 18+ miles to Stevens Pass by 4:45 pm and set out to hitch a ride to town. Looking like wet rats I figured it might take awhile, but the second vehicle stopped. A pick up with a heavy metal fan. We were in Skykomish by 5:15.
At the Cascadia we ran into Dave (of Dave and Lexi) and got caught up. We also got a room, got dry and warm and got dinner and discussed plans for the next section. The Cascadia is a Motel/cafe/bar and is a very nice, if somewhat loosely organized place. Very friendly. The front desk was closed at 5pm when we arrived, but the waitress from the cafe cheerfully rented us a room, for which went up and selected from all those with open doors. Most rooms are on a floor with a communal bathroom area. After finding one and settling in we later found out that there was no shade on one window and a very bright mercury vapor light shined in, but we were too tired and entrenched to leave.
Phil “Nowhere Man” Hough
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