Home Sweet Home

Day 102

Home Sweet Home -- that's what we wrote on the inside of my Buff, and threw up on our clothes line in our tent. And that's where we are; home.

Today we left the Red Moose (a place where every hiker needs to stop) and then Bill drove us the mile back to the trail, and we were off! A cool three thousand foot incline that put us on the ridge line is how we started the day. The trail was filled with green, brown, and grey -- all the colors of a snowless forest. We were happy indeed.

With lakes all around us, the breeze blowing, and the sun keeping us warm and dry. We realized how happy we were to be back out here, and the 22-mile day was a great way to leave the Red Moose. Not a bad way to get back into the groove of things. Even though the trail reminded us of the Appalachian Trail with all the rocks on the ground, and being locked in by the trees, the day was a grand ol' one.

The night was even better though! We got into camp around 7:30, and quickly set up, got water, cooked dinner, and built a fire. With our new Ultimate Survival Technologies 'WetFire" the fire was ablaze in minutes. I'll never go camping without it again... More to come on our gear blog in the days to come.

Thanks to Backpackers Pantry, we got some great food to start this section with. What's even cooler is they gave us SIDES and DESSERTS aaaand olive oil. We realized that getting instant mashed potatoes and putting the sides in would amp up any normal camp dinner when one can't splurge on the dinners. That being said, we had Chicken Vindaloo with olive oil for dinner. It was by far the best dehydrated meal we have had. Followed by Cheesecake for dessert, and our new FRS drink powders (which are the best juice mix we've had) our night was perfect. I even saw a huge meteor.

With all this awesomeness happening, we realized we are now in the Cascades.

--Ian