Where we worked on the trail two summers ago before I left for Pct

So many blowdowns where we had camped w the crew

Whoah. Somehow I did 27 miles to w 6379 ft elevation gain. Slept well last night w the river next to me. I took off and said bye to the drs. I hiked down to the suiattle river and took the impressive bridge over to the other side. Some hikers have taken the old Pct route to cut miles but you have to ford a river and maybe lots of blowdowns. As I got on the suiattle side, I kept trying to remember what part of the trail I had been on. Two years ago, I was on a wta trip w Jacob doing trail maintenence and had one of the best experiences I've ever had. Turns out we were on the Pct for long time when we hiked in w the crew. I finally got to the junction to where we had camped and everything looked so diff. Tons of more trees down to where I had camped. Then I started up the long hill. I took note of all the logs we cut and I also remembered this huge tree stump I was working on for hrs, trying to get the roots out. It was really nostalgic walking through this area. Something I will always remember.

When I got to the old Pct junction, I saw a note left for me from the drs! I've never had a note before. It was so sweet. They said they had taken the shortcut so I figured they would be way ahead of me. So I worked on the long hill all morning. I took a lunch near the top of the hill and had walked 16 miles. Usually when I'm by myself all day, I just walk more. Lunches and breaks are shorter bc you don't talk to anyone. I got down to this area where you could see the north cascades up ahead and it was amazing. The trail was nice most of the day. Then at around four, I ran into the drs! I was so surprised to see them bc I thought they were way ahead w the shortcut and they would maybe go to stehekin tonight. So crazy. I was happy to meet back up again and decided to camp at cedar camp. The last few miles down to camp were def tiring for me. We were actually at camp at a reasonable time which felt nice. We had this nice little small spot by the river.

As we were getting set up, baton walked by! We were almost sure he was ahead. I hadn't seen him all day. As per usual, he got peer pressured and ended up camping w us. He normally walks later but tonight was our first night all together. We looked at pics of each other what we looked like down in campo. Always so funny to see the men unbearded. I also decided I can't do knorr pasta anymore. They are way too gummy and stick to the pan. I just wanna do ramen and Mac and cheese from now on. We all decided we will try to make the nine o clock shuttle tom into stehekin. We'll see if we can wake up early enough.