It absolutely poured and thundered with big strikes of lightning through the night. Luckily, it cleared up by the time I woke up ~6am. It was Quite brisk in the upper 30’s. I headed out around 7:30 with a nice guy named Miles from Victoria, BC. Here we are hiking through some rhododendron that will be stunning when they bloom in several weeks.

Water seems to be a natural congregating point for hikers…much like cattle. The sun was out and things warmed into the upper 60’s. This was great place to soak the feet about 11 miles into the day.

The Gooch Mtn. shelter was today’s planned destination but as you can see, it was a tent city by 3pm so I decided to hangout for a bit then hike another 1-2 miles in the evening and camp along the way.

Miles and another hiker, Tony from VT joined me.

We found a great spot and met Odie who makes the Hiker Yearbook (old school) and hung out by a fire next to his school bus camper. Far more relaxing then the tent city.

A great day that ended with some late evening rain driving us into our tents around Hiker Midnight (8:30).

Trail Mile: 17.4