Man, I sleep so well on the trail. I don’t know if it is the exhaustion, cool air, or what. I am practically unconscious by 9 and only wake up when the dawn light is hitting me at 6. Today’s objective is Blue Lake. Reports are that it is a really good spot and this time I’m beating the other folks to it.

I strapped in early today, hitting the trial before 6. I want to finish this climb early in the morning while it is cool and have some breakfast on the peak. I forgot the one downside of being the first on the trail in the morning. Spiderwebs. Overnight, our spidery friends try to start webs across the trail and the first one through gets covered in them. That would be me. Eventually I pass a SOBO and we joke together that the trail is now clear in both directions.
I reached the top, took a picture and had breakfast. While I’m finishing up Papa and John cruise by all sweaty. Glad I got some of this work in last night.

There are some experiments going on up here. Seen half-dozen of these signs.

As usual my mind starts wandering. Let’s have a peak inside Salty J’s head for the next hour or two.

So I’m thinking experimental area. You know Bigfoot is supposed to be running around here. During my hike in 2017, my foot grew from size 10.5 / 11 to 12+. We all get real shaggy on the trail. Maybe at this point some hikers just throw off their packs and run off into the experimental area, eat some special berries, and complete the transformation. A Salty Bigfoot.

The government would have all sorts of uses for a few Bigfoot.   Sent some of them to Siberia to collect intel.  Drop a few in Tibet to stir things up.   Maybe they do some trail maintenance when they are not working covert Ops.  

I break the pull of the Bigfoot berries and head downhill.

First I start slappng bugs then I see this

By now I’m under an Oregon style mosquito assault. But Washington doesn’t stop there. How about mixing in some biting black flies? Then some tiny little shit’s that I can hardly see but love to chomp on my exposed legs. Cap that off with a bunch of horse flies constantly circling and that completes the picture. I’m practically jogging through some of the worse areas until I finally get to Blue lake at 4 or so.

Blue lake is a deep one that is a popular swimming hole for the locals. It is also popular with all of Washington’s insect horrors. I find this choice spot on a pennisula, throw up the inner layer of my tent, and dive in with my pack. Then I go to work on my unwanted  housemates in a thrashing, slapping frenzy. After 10 minutes my tent is a bug graveyard and I lay back to enjoy the view.

While I’m laying there chilling, a group of 6 teenage boys show up and jump off the ledge just to the left of my feet. Fun watching them doing flips. Wish I would have caught one on camera. A little later the bugs die down and I venture outside to setup my rainfly. Took another pic in the morning while I was packing up.

This place is definitely a 10. Even the lake water tastes pretty good. I did another 20 today. That’s ok mileage, but I need to step it up if I want to make the next resupply before I’m empty.