23 September 2015, Wednesday Last night some other hikers came into camp around 9pm. O & I lay inour tent as they stomped around and shone their headlights at ourtents. They seemed a bit disconcerted that our tents and our kitchenwere so spread out. I finally put on my jacket and went out to greetthem. I offered to make room on the bench we were using as ourkitchen counter, and told
22 September 2015, Tuesday We wake at 7 am. The sky is blue, but the sun has not reached the bottomof the river valley yet. We can see the bright green of themountain tops. It is a cool, damp 41 degrees F. We rehydrate our applecranberry French Toast for breakfast and have a fairly leisurelymorning. We are packed up and on the trail at 10:30. It’s hard totake off our extra
21 September 2015, Monday None of us slept very well last night. The Inn was fine – but ourneighbor was a mom with two children. The mom could have used someparenting classes. She spent much of the evening screaming at thekids. Interestingly, we did not hear the children at all.Nonetheless, we are up at 6 for final showers before breakfast at 7. It takes awhile to get organized at the trailhead,
20 Sept 2015, Sunday This morning we try to dispose of as many leftovers as we can at S &K’s house before setting off for the Olympic Peninsula. We have abreakfast scramble with mint-pistachio broccoli, bits of left oversalmon and potatoes. It is good! I finish packing my backpack, now that I can disassemble the sleepingsystem. My pack, without water is 15 Kg. That’s fairly heavy. . .we’ll have to eat
19 September, Saturday Homemade waffles for breakfast today, then Skyping with Grandpa, L & R. S heads off to work, K heads out shopping. I do a bit more research onboth our Olympic trip and our Grand Canyon trip. We learn we canself-register at the trailhead for the Duckabush trail. That willmake life easier. We won’t have to drive to Port Angeles. As far asGrand Canyon goes, I can now check
18 September, Friday Today S, K, O, and I head to Bellevue early to get Ferd’s oil changed, thetrue destination being Lil Jons Diner for a substantial breakfast.Breakfast is followed by a bit more of a wait at the Subaru Dealer. Oand I actually get to read most of a newspaper for the first timesince leaving home. Nothing much has changed in the world. We return home and wrap up all
17 September, Thursday S, K, and I start off the day with a nice long pre-breakfast walk,which is a good thing because it rains much of the rest of the day.Apple cinnamon bread French toast for breakfast, then some moregrocery shopping to get the snack foods for hiking that we forgot topick up yesterday. Snake goes off to work. K bakes a batch of graham cracker brownies to take along on
16 September, Wednesday A busy day! We have several stops to make for groceries this morning,then off to REI. I tell the customer service rep at the desk aboutthe broken headlamp. She tries it as well… no light. I aminstructed to go find a replacement and bring it back to the desk.This I do. Now a young man is helping me. He picks up thenon-functioning light and tries to “unlock it”
15 September, Tuesday Once again we are up early. We do not have far to drive today – itshould only be a few hours to Redmond. We stop in at the CopperKettle in Ellensburg where we listen to local farmers discuss their camaros, and gettingtheir alfalfa crop in, and how much extra moneyyou can earn by having a cell tower on your property. Breakfastfinished, we stop at the local fruit stand
14 September, Monday Before departing Missoula, we return to the Hob Nob Cafe for another roundof their sourdough blueberry pancakes. We exchange travel tales withthe young waitress who has spent time in the East working in anecological field. She finds our tales entertaining enough that sherewards us with a free cranberry white chocolate chip scone. While weare eating our pancakes we are further entertained by a young man whostops in for