Arrived in Stehekin

Arrived in the beautiful town of Stehekin in Northern Washington. The last section of trail was the dodgey Glacier Peak section with unmaintained trails and many blown down trees. Bad Packer and I did the road walk, which is the safest and fastest route. We quickly caught up with Teatree, Heidi and Feather. Since our plan was to catch up with the others we were pleased to catch some folks so soon (after just 2 hours!). Teatree and co had been taking it easy for a while and having a blast.

We met the other crew the next day - Out of Order, Fester, Rocham, Grimace, Sweep. Pretty soon in came NAFTA and Out There. Speedstick appeared from nowhere. She seems to be dragging her heels since we are coming to the end of an amazing journey and nobody really wants it to end - just 4 days left to Canada and most folks have done the whole 2,500 miles to here.

There is an awesome bakery there where we spent several hours yesterday playing cranium. Very funny. Cultural problems stood in the way of me and Teatree communicating effectively. I had to draw the action 'Cartwheel' and was surprised when they didnt get it. To Americans a cartwheel is an acrobatic tumbling turn and not a "Wagon Wheel". The Hiking Poles, Many Names and Lake the Lake, from Poland, understood my drawing but everyone else thought it hysterically funny. I think they are back at the bakery now for round 2. I struggled to find a team mate with my cultural problem so I'll head down and watch the action later!

I will very surely miss it out here. We had a lovely campfire last night and rather too much beer. I awoke at 4am for a pea and was disappointed to see my camping mat deflated. I began to think it punctured again but then remembered I was probably too drunk to remember to blow it up to begin with. I lost my hiking pole but found that under my tent - I had been sleeping on it. A rough night you might think, but not soo - beautiful out here! The low altitude has given us some warmer weather but for 35 miles out of here we climb 6,000 feet. A little daunting.

Teatree, NAFTA, Out There and me have decided to take another day off here. It's such a wonderful place. There are cars here but the road doesnt go anywhere! You have to arrive by boat or sea plane! Oats and Moonshade are here relaxing and are getting married in a couple of days (in their hiker gear of course).