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.

You can’t see them in this picture, but I just descended down this massive rock jumble using switchback after switchback. So far the Cascades are full of both: switchbacks and rock jumbles. Also the climbs and descents are steeper and more often.

So as I was walking down to this stream I was analyzing how to cross it. It had been written on my maps that this crossing could be dangerous. So I was thinking… Was there a bridge? No. Should I wade? No, there looks to be rocks and logs. Should I use rocks? No, because the two logs look like the way to cross. So I very slowly and carefully crossed on those two bending and flexing logs as the stream flowed beneath me. What I didn’t notice is that after the logs I had to cross a deep washout by climbing down six feet on slippery wet rocks, cross a small tributary of the stream and climb back up to the trail. I think this latter obstacle was actually harder to cross.

Today seemed to have a few more obstacles than normal. First there were multiple groups of multiple trees. Some you climb over others you crawl under. Later there was a enormous tree across the trail that I had to climb up, then get over, and climb back down to the trail. This blowdown was so memorable that other hikers I met earlier in the day remarked about it.

Washington is a temperate rain forest and everything is especially green and growing. The trail gets overgrown at times and sometimes it’s even hard to follow. This means that the trail requires work to cut back the overgrowth. There are volunteers who donate their time and energy to do things like that. I’ve seen one or two trail maintenance crews on the trail and I always thank them for their service to the trail.