Trail Magic Extrordinaire

Sep 11 & 12
Note: Yesterdays entry included Sept. 10 as well.
We had rain, sleet and a little snow during the night so the day started out very cold and wet. Everything we expected to find in Washington but happily did not get up to now. The snow and ice made everything glitter like rhinestones.












Views of snow covered Mt Rainier were spectacular!




It stayed cool all day but the clouds gave way to sunny clear skies and at lunch we were able to dry out our tent and gear. The trail was ever-changing and colorful all day. We noticed the bright neon colors coming through as the leaves were changing from green to bright yellow, red and orange. How quickly our surroundings evolve on the PCT!
We continued to feed on huckleberries and a variety of other berries. We learned the yellow/orange blackberries we had been eating were actually called Salmon Berries.




We met hikers problem Bear, Blueberry and Skippy yesterday and leap-frogged with them all day. They are on the same schedule as Gone Fishing and I, with plans to get to Canada by October First. At one point I was ahead of Gone Fishing, came around a corner and saw tree branches and huckleberry bushes move as I heard the eeeking sounds of elk warning their herd as they ran out of view. Not enough time for a pic:(
Although the tread in Washington is great it is all up and down - one mountain after another. With our days getting shorter (hiker midnight is back to 8pm again), we expect 18- 20 miles to be our daily limit.
We met Mark Trails coming south and he gave us the scoop on what to expect going north. The smoke and fires we were seeing in the distance thankfully were not in our path. No detours and more fabulous scenery to look forward to. Mark took our pictures for the 2012 class DVD and we parted company. Todays goal was to reach the Mike Urick Cabin about 21 miles from our start. We were there by 5pm and were not surprised to find several other hikers with the same plan.




What we WERE surprised to find was trail magic! India and Buck, previous PCT Thru-Hikers hosted the event. Hot dogs, hamburgers, hot and cold drinks and all the fixings. And if that was not enough banana pancakes the next morning!




Thanks Buck and India!
We also had another pleasant surprise when we entered the cabin we found Niko and Liane (Fidget and Go Fish), were there too. We continued to leap-frog with them going forward into the Snoqualamie National Forest.




Niko and Liane








Heart