Day 131 - Sunday, September 5

Tenting at a small clearing (mile 2378.0). Walked 25.2 miles today.

We got up and had breakfast with Mary before we all said goodbye and departed. We hadn't gone one tenth of a mile when we ran into a father and son bear hunting. The father somewhat blocked the trail for a couple minutes as he looked through the scope at a bear before letting us pass. A few minutes later, we heard them get the bear (I'll spare everyone the details, but it was unpleasant and really affected Frank as she loves seeing bears on trail).

We hiked on, taking breaks here and there as we climbed and descended quite a bit through several clear-cuts and across dirt roads.

Today was a lot of trees and not too many views. We had several climbs and descents that were very steep and several times our app was incorrect as to the terrain.

On one descent, we ran into Lost and Found who was heading southbound. She had gone from Chinook Pass to Seattle to get new shoes and then went south from Snoqualmie Pass because it was easier to hitch there. She'll flip back to Snoqualmie and go north from there. We hiked a few more miles, under several sets of power lines and eventually got to Tacoma Pass where we found trail magic. I had a hot dog and Frank had a quesadilla. There was another hiker, Puffy, at the trail magic as well. It turns out, he was the first person Frank hiked with on the trail (on day one!). They caught up and we all set off together.

Frank and I got to a clearing about 8:00 where we made camp just as it was getting dark. We had the place to ourselves as we set up our tents and got ready for bed.