Snoqualmie Pass was a nice place to stay. After doing laundry in the morning, I went to the Aardvark Express food truck, and had a late breakfast of macaroni and cheese, with apples, spinach, and spicy Corduroy sauce. It was absolutely terrific.
As I ate, somebody suddenly slapped Elizabeth and I on the back. I turned around, and who should it be but Pathfinder. He had finished the trail on September 1st, and was driving back to meet people at the last few trail towns. He’d guessed we’d be here ahead of schedule.
He drove us into the larger town of North Bend, where Elizabeth was able to see a doctor about her back, and I was able to get a new rain jacket and sleeping socks. Hopefully the remaining cold and wet will be less of a problem.
He warned us about the upcoming trail. It was steep and full of scree (trails made of loose rocks). He’d had a hard time making his mileage, which probably meant we’d have a much harder time.
After lunch at a diner that turned out to be the one from Twin Peaks, we went back to Snoqualmie Pass, and tried the local brewery.
After long chats with other hikers there, we headed back to the Aardvark Express for dinner, for more long chatting with other hikers. Perch was there, the hiker who’d written me an energy bar recipe back on the top of Mt. Baden-Powell, around 2000 miles ago.
After a quick resupply, we headed back to the motel, watched Back to the Future, and went to bed.
The next morning, we ate more Aardvark Express, packed up, and got going in a light drizzle. It was a bit late, about 10:30.
Soon enough, the highway noise was gone, my phone was out of service, and we were headed uphill. It became steep and rocky, like Pathfinder had warned.
The weather was strange this morning. Sometimes, we’d have warm direct sun. But, a gust of cold, humid air could come by. Or warm humid air. Washington couldn’t decide how to treat us.
In any case it got windier as the morning progressed. I tried out my new rain coat as a windbreaker, and the experiment was a success. I was much warmer without being sweaty.
After lunch, however, the weather got cloudier and foggier.
And, soon enough, it began to rain. Lightly at first, then quite heavily. The forecast had called for 0.01 inches of rain today, but that was clearly way too low.
When it was getting late, and I was getting worried about having to set up my tent in the rain, the weather finally more or less dried up. We saw a few more moments of rain, but it remained dry enough for us to find a campsite and set up our tents.
250 miles left.