Day 148 - Stevens Pass to wacs2498

That was a long and hard day.

After getting up and getting my stuff packed at the Dinsmores, I went to the restaurant across the tracks with everyone else. I got the breakfast burrito, like Copper Tone recommend yesterday. It took a long time for the food to finally get to the table, though, and by the time we got back to the hostel it was already 10:00.

In the mean time Mrs Dinsmore got everyone rides back to the trail. I got a ride with her, along with Lighthouse and Slacker. We finally reached the pass at 11:00, said our goodbyes to Copper Tone, which won’t be waiting at the next road crossing in Rainy Pass, and Lighthouse and I headed out.

The trail started deceptively easy, but after about a mile the climbing started. I think we have made about three big climbs today, each was pretty steep at times.

We kept running into day hikers, and Lighthouse was too nice to them, so they all chatted for too long. We also ran into a trail maintenance crew that gave us tiny whiskey bottles and fresh apples. I was talking to one of them who plans to thru hike the trail next year. Hope he manages to get it rolling.

More ups and downs later, we figured out we will not be making the planned 24 miles, after such a late start. But there was a campsite about 2.5 before we can stop at.

At about 17:00 we started the final 4 mile stretch to there, with quite a climb, and then a long downhill to the creek. The only good thing were all the blueberries along the trail, even though they slowed us down.

Right before reaching camp, Seamstress caught up to us. We got here together. It’s s very nice, clear grassy spot, next to a flowing stream.