For the past two days I’ve had cold rainy days. My shoes and socks are soaking wet. My pant legs are dirty and wet. My rain gear is wet and filthy. Luckily I have dry clothes to change into after hiking all day. It is especially hard to put on cold, wet and dirty clothes in the morning. Once I’m hiking I warm up and I’m OK, but getting on that first wet sock is tough. Today as I climbed to a pass it was cold enough to snow. Rain, fog, snow – what next?

Almost done. Only 60 miles to go. Although after 2600 miles having to do a paltry 60 might seem easy, but each mile in the Northern Cascades requires more energy and my physical stamina is also waning.

Labor Day and the Post Office is closed. I can’t get my resupply until Tuesday at 10 AM. Then I can’t get on trail until the bus leaves at 11:15 AM and arrives at the trail at 12:15 PM. This means a short hiking day and I’m trying my best to get to Katie at the trail’s northern terminus on 9/6 at 3:30 PM. Wish me luck and happy feet!

This log looks short because of the foreshortening. But it was about 60-100 feet long and as wide as a sidewalk. They built a walk up to it with river rocks. The roots were probably manicured to form a “V” to climb through. Although I shuffled across the log due to my limited balance, it was a fun obstacle to surmount.

This lake still had last season’s ice in it.

Today had mixed weather. Sometime the sun came out, but most of the time there were clouds. As the day got later the clouds won.

What fun! River crossings are a challenge. From broken bridges to skipping from stone to stone. I lost count of the number of river crossings today.

At Steven’s Pass I hitched 16-miles to the Dinsmore’s Hiker Haven. As each hiker passes through their home the hiker’s picture is taken and posted. Here is mine which was taken by Andrea as I was talking to Jerry. We were chatting about what to do about the upcoming Labor Day holiday and the closure of the post office in Stehekin.

Sometimes as I hike the trail I look up and see the beautiful scenery. This is especially true when I’ve finished a multi-mile climb.