On to Skykomish Part 2

Sept 17
2431-2452
It was a quite night save for a mouse that I dreamt ran across my head during the night. Turns out it wasn't a dream. The tent zipper was open just enough to allow the critter access and I found his dirty work in my snack sac. Ughhh!
The view from outside the tent was awesome- snow covered mountains towering over the Douglas-firs and Waptus Lake of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

What-can't see them? We couldn't either. The smell of smoke was so strong and thick I thought a fire was burning just outside the tent. Later we learned from a hunter on horseback that over a hundred fires were triggered from the recent dry lightning storms. Other than the sprinkling we had a week ago there has been no rain for over 60 days in Washington. Unfortunately it was smoky with limited views most of the day so I did not take many pictures.
The weather was cool and we hiked a bit further than we intended. We crossed a challenging river and struggled to find a campsite before dark.
Sadly we did not come across any more mushrooms and the huckleberry bushes were fruitless having been raided by hikers, bears and birds. So the tiresome dehydrated fare was dinner but I changed mine up a bit-- I mixed the rice with the cream of wheat - added cinnamon sugar and Nido (dry whole milk), the appropriate amount of boiling water and called it rice pudding. Interesting but just not the same as mom made. GF stuck with his usual--mashed potatoes and Spam.
Sept 18
2452-2472
The smoke started to clear and I snapped this pic first thing in the morning.

Today was warmer than yesterday- mid 70's and we were faced with our most challenging Washington trek to date-- 5900' up and 5400' down! We met hiking couple Footprint and Illusion from the Czech Republic and leap-frogged with them all day. We stopped for lunch at an inviting lake and Footprint said they saw some good-sized trout during their swim. Thats all GF had to hear-his rod was in hand within 5 minutes and he had a big smile on his face. A few nibbles but no naive fish.
We met PCT section hiker Jackflash-a guitar player from Chicago who has been hiking from Kennedy Meadows, and crossed paths again with other familiar faces. I was finally able to get a pic of a grouse. I have seen several but they often fly off before I can get my camera out. This one was a bit of a ham.