When the rain stopped last night, it really did stop!  We didn’t even have tree drip on our tarp this morning!  Again, because of the dark and cold, we ate breakfast “in bed,”  while Colter did the same.  He had asked somewhat anxiously last night about how early we usually got up and was relieved to hear 5:30 was our time.  Apparently that’s his “rise ‘n shine time”, too, and he was concerned about bothering us if we planned to get up later. 

To my delight, the sky showed mostly clear–the clouds were almost all gone.  We could see a real sunrise with pretty colors–not just grayness gradually getting lighter.  Eventually the sky cleared completely–for the first time since we went through Goat Rocks.  The PCT took us through a wide variety of scenery–meadows, forests, huge boulder fields and mountains.  The plants were all soaking wet, so we wore our raingear, but wow!  We loved taking Snickers breaks in the SUN at last!    All morning long we were leapfrogging with Happy Camper, Trashbucket and Colter.

A long steep climb that ended at 11:30 am landed us on top of a pass with lots of warm sun and DRY ground and DRY bushes!  Wahoo–garage sale time!  Soon we had all our stuff spread out everywhere, drying in the sun.  We also enjoyed a special treat of really good coffee that the Manns had given to us.  Butterflies were everywhere, landing on us and on our stuff.   But their favorite item was an orange-colored plastic bag that we keep our garbage in.   We wondered whether it was the orange color or the garbage that attracted their attention.

Just as we were packing up to leave, along came Colter, who was very happy to have such a perfect spot to stop and dry HIS gear!  And while we were still eating lunch, HC and TB had come along .  They stopped to ask a number of questions about Stehekin, because they were worried about getting there when the post office was open.  They were also very puzzled as to why the Stehekin bus takes a whole hour to go just 10 miles from the PCT to the town. We explained that it had several stops where the bus waits around for awhile before going on–especially at the famous Stehekin Bakery.

After lunch, the trail did various ups and downs and contours before landing us at the junction with the detour trail.  Happy Camper and Trashbucket were already there, enjoying one of their very healthy snacks (hummus and corn chips this time) so we joined them and ate our Snickers.   They are trying to make lots of miles, in an effort to reach Stehekin well before the weekend.   They took off, and eventually we followed them, now headed into what for us was a totally new part of the PCT.  (We followed the detour route in 2005). 

Up ahead of us lay a whole bunch of snowy mountains, and the trail headed straight towards them, climbing gently at first, then more steeply as we got closer to Red Pass, contouring along very steep mountainsides along deep, deep valleys, wooded on the sides, but with a meadow and meandering little creek in each “bottom land.”   The PCT is up very high, mostly above the woods, on hillsides covered with green grass and various plants.  The plants are turning color–mostly yellow–so the overall effect is very pretty;  the mountainsides have a sort of glowing yellow-green effect.   The actual mountaintops were hidden in clouds, but the sun was still shining on the trail where we were hiking.  

Suppertime found us in nice warm sunshine on a hillside with an AWESOME view in all directions–snowcovered peaks and beautiful meadows.  We agreed that today has been absolutely delightful, even though it was hard work–those 25 miles we did were tough miles.   Not long after supper, we reached Red Pass.  The approach to the pass from our side was green and pretty, but the other side was like instantly being transported to another planet.  It was barren and rocky and had a fair amount of snow, some of which we had to cross in order to get down from the Pass.   At this point it was getting late in the day and we were anxious to get down as low as we could to find a campsite. 

Getting down was not easy.  The trail was muddy and rocky; water from snowmelt was running everywhere.  Every flat spot was a puddle!  I was seriously getting worried about where we could camp, but we made it down to treeline and found a wonderful campsite on a dry knoll.  We could hear a creek roaring in the distance, and in the sunset light, the moon was rising above the mountains, very ethereal and beautiful.   Clouds were moving in from the north, but the evening was warmer than it has been, which was very nice.   I thought about tomorrow’s “killer hiking day” coming up, and hoped for a good night’s sleep.