7/31 10 miles

My wonderful daughter took us to REI, then all the way back to where she picked us up yesterday before driving hours back to Seattle. We started hiking at 12:30 pm, me with new undies, socks snd bug dope.

It was the paved Mt Baker Highway uphill all day with quite a bit of fast moving traffic. I’d like some signage (a volunteer project for me?) saying something like “PNT National Scenic Trail, Believe It or Not”

We had a lovely stop at the ski resort cafe—cookies, beer and Gatorade at 3:30. Tex is back! He was standing in line ahead of me, haven’t seen him since Metalline Falls. He is an amazingly competent and independent 18 year old from South Africa living with his family in DC.

We made it through the resort and camped, smoky with rain in the forecast. Tomorrow will be trail downhill for quite a ways though.

More than ever, I want to snowboard Mt Baker next winter!

8/1 23 miles

It started early on lovely forest trail for awhile, then not so much. I did 2 awful “butt scoot” river crossings on logs after many hours of overgrowth and blowdowns. I tried to ford but the water was too fast and the hidden rocks too slippery. A lot of times the logs for crossings will have been cross-hatched for traction and have a rail to hang onto. Not these and with my tippy pack on, I just don’t trust that I won’t fall off the log if I walk it. So I sit astraddle and laboriously inch across. Then it was good trail to a short cut, about 9 miles on paved road. It was wet but not cold today.

8/2 20.4 miles

My battery charger is almost empty, it never charged properly in Bellingham. I don’t want my inReach satellite tracking (and SOS) device to go dead and my phone also needs to stay alive because of the maps snd books loaded on it. Yes I also have paper maps.

We walked gravel road uphill to a trailhead, why is it always uphill? And there were people! Beautiful trail around the other side of Mt Baker, even if it was a smoky, hazy, windy kind of walk. The tread was good all day except for the last mile and a half of blowdown. Goon Squad, last seen a few days ago, came in late and camped with us.

8/3 18.5 miles

Ick day. Blowdown to overgrowth, finally at 1:30pm—gravel roads—uphill in clear cuts. We’re now pitched in the worst of the 5 road turnout campsites we’ve used to date. We got woken up at 2:30am by logging equipment driving by, more or less continuously till we finally got up and started walking.

8/4 16 miles

Road walk to Lyman then the rail-to-trail segment to Sedro-Woolley where we went to the PNTA office. There we met Sterling, the trail crew boss and organizer who gave us a ride to Burlington and our comfy motel. We Ubered to downtown Mt Vernon for great pizza and beer on the Skagit River.

8/5 zero

Got a new Anker battery charger from Best Buy since mine, 2016 vintage, won’t charge anymore. Also about 2 lbs of See’s Butterscotch candy. Then Farmstrong Brewery, a short walk away, for great food and okay beer.