Bobcat and his kindly host on beautiful Lake Chelan, the country's 3rd deepest lake after Lake Tahoe (#2) and Crater Lake (#1), both of which I have been able to visit already on this amazing journey. I'll call him "The Captain" since he's working on getting a sailboat and his awesome lake house is modeled to be like a ship on the inside. I went from barely having driven at all in the last 3 years to getting the keys to his red convertible, top already down. Niiiice town stop for sure, even though I was awfully sick. He may even move to Ecuador one day and then I'll have another friend to go visit down there, always a good thing = ).


Going southbound give ample opportunity to run into old friends and make new ones, even though they're only around for a few minutes. Pictured here are Rubicks, Alabama Jammer, and Wing It. I don't think I'd seen her since the day I headed off down the Quincy-LaPorte Road way back by the Belden fires.


While there are abundant bears in the area, the REAL problem creatures are the ballsy mice that came to invade the tarptent if I left a zipper slightly open. Bobcat usually sleeps under the stars when he can but this freeloading mouse and his amigos were out for blood.


The Glacier Peak Wilderness is reknowned as one of the hardest sections of trail out there because of the constant climbing and descending as well as a large number of unrepaired/cleared old growth blowdowns (trees fallen across the trail). Sure sure all that was there and it slowed me down, but the real delay factors were my recurring illness and the mushrooms. It was absolutely a trip into the Mushroom Kingdom Mario Brothers-style. So many varieties of fungus, truly a new experience to pass into their realm for a few days.


Cue foreboding music. Teh hiker community locves to get its panties in a twist over this lace where the trail is officially closed, but then everyone goes through it anyways and gets all chuffed up about their hardcore credentials after emerging from the other side. Well, here goes nothin...