Start: 0800 - Chuck River tributary
End: 1800 - near Milk Creek
Miles (today): 19
Miles (cumulative): 2551 (2301 PCT, 175 alternate, 75 off)

The stars were beautiful last night, particularly the Milky Way.  I wish our tent had a way for us to look at the stars as we are falling asleep, but alas, I only get a glimpse if/when I get up to pee. 

Since I saw stars I figured the rain forecast was wrong and hoped it wouldn't be raining in the morning.  When I first woke up I didn't hear any raindrops falling on the tent - good sign! - but, sadly, it WAS foggy outside.  Even sadder: just as Nick and I were getting ready to make our breakfasts, we heard a few patters on the tent.

It wasn't a hard rain, more of a sporadic drizzle.  The up side is that I got to try out my new pack cover and Nick showed me a better way to attach my umbrella to my pack.  

The rain and fog didn't get in the way of many views because we spent most of the morning in a green tunnel (this is why I don't know if I'll ever hike the AT).  The trail wasn't in the best of shape - lots of rutted out trail and quite a few obstacles to get around - so, even though I felt as if time went by quickly, we were never as far along as I thought we should be.  

Along the way I met Half Assed, an older gentleman who said he has been on the trail for 9 months.  9 months!!  That seems like a long time, but then again we have been out here for 5 months....

Because of the weather I hiked for over 7 hours straight without stopping; this made me a bit crabby but I wanted to get to the meeting spot as early as possible.  According to the maps, it was either hike a short 16 miles or hike a long 26 (the middle miles had us going down switchbacks into a valley and then going back up switchbacks the other side).  I definitely wanted to hike the 26 miles.

Wanting to hike 26 miles and being able to are very different things.  By the time we made it the 15 miles to Mika Lake it was 1530 and neither of us had stopped for a break (lots of elevation change going on).  We took some time to eat by the lake (it was gorgeous) and discuss our options.  I really didn't want to cut our day short but I also really didn't want to be hiking until after dark (particularly with the poor condition of the trail).  We saw a note in Yogi's notes that said there was camping on a switchback several miles down, which we thought was a decent compromise (even though we'd stop hiking early, it wouldn't be that early and we'd get in a few more miles.)

Thinking we didn't have much further to go, we hiked together (what?!) and Nick stopped a lot to eat crackberries.  I wanted to pick them, too, but it was cold on that side of the mountain and  therefore my hands were engulfed in puffy gloves.  Nick would run ahead of me and eat crackberries until I caught up, which I could only endure for so long.  At one point, when I couldn't take it any longer, I made Nick feed me some berries.  As I tilted my head back to receive the berries, Nick said, "baby bird" - an SNL reference - which made me laugh so hard I cried.  After a while of me laughing, he ended up throwing them into my mouth and I sort-of choked on a berry, which made me laugh even more.  LOL  (Little moments like this are the ones I'm going to miss the most.)

When we got to the water source 0.2 miles before the campsite, we loaded up and then hiked on.  Sadly, the campsite didn't seem to exist, so we walked on and on and on down the never ending switchbacks with very heavy packs full of water.  Just as I was resigning myself to hiking in the dark, we found a spot that would work.  Thank goodness!  Even better, we are further along than we would have been had our planned campsite existed.

Nick had a fun time putting up the tent. The space was a little tight but he did a fine job.  :)

Along the trail: