Spent most of the morning uploading my blog updates.   The WiFi at this hotel is not that great.   I hear it only gets worse as I push further North.   Walked down to the highway and caught a hitch without much trouble. 

The gal giving me a ride just graduated from college and will be working for Google in about a month.   She was hiking the Washington PCT section when she got a foot  injury.   She is now doing supply runs for friends while recovering.   When we arrived at Steven’s Pass her car got swarmed by 3 hikers looking for a ride.   One of them was my buddy McGriddle who I last saw at the Washington Alpine hostel.   Somehow 3 stinky hikers + their packs squished into her old Corolla and she drove off.

   

First hour or two on the trail after a town is usually pleasant.   The trail is wide and well maintained.   After walking a bit, my biting fly friends showed up.   Always nice to see old friends. 

Not a whole lot of views.   Just kind of stuck in the forest.  I figured I could get 10 in today and decided to check out the camp sites at Janus Lake.  There were a bunch of sites around the here.   At the first one, I saw a couple tents and went in to say hello.   Turns out one of them contains my buddy Patches !    He and a hiker named Major are camping here tonight.  

Patches is apparently made of tougher stuff than me.   He was a couple days behind me at Stevens Pass.  He hiked through all the rain and kept going through Stevens Pass without taking a town break.   Patches is a little bummed about all the elevation changes.   He says is pace has been much slower.    I totally agree.   Washington is not going to make the last miles easy. 

We catch up on some folks we both know while picking huckleberries..   Patches thinks Dog Bite is eather slightly ahead or slightly behind us.   Niko was in Skykomish the same time I was, but must have been camping and I never saw him.  We agree to aim for Lake Sally Ann tomorrow. 

While we were chatting some lady shows up.   She talks to us from a distance and seems skittish about joining our site.  Patches suggests she head 100ft down a side trail next to us which would give here a huge flat area to herself.  She mumbles something, then sets up her tent in some lumpy grass and surrounded by bushes.   Patches and I are laughing about it later, she is going to wake up to a wet tent and a sore back.  New backpackers are so easy to spot.