September 15

9/15

18 miles (2390 to 2408, delate creek)

We did not want to leave our hotel room

 this morning. We slept in and procrastinated until we started to feel antsy. We ate at the food cart one more time on our way to the trail and started hiking around 11.  The day we were dreading was beautiful. It's not warm out but it's not yet raining. The mountains are   steep and bare, spotted with the occasional white mountain goat. 

Although there was a perfectly fine looking valley leading from town, the trail went straight up into the mountains. In the 18 miles of hiking we did over 6,000 feet of climbing. That's a lot. We ended up just about 1,000 feet above where we started, so many steep ups and downs in Washington. 

Clay has developed shin splints frustratingly late in the game. He elevated and iced it in the hotel but is pretty unhappy about it. Why now after 2300 miles of hiking? We are supposed to get rain tomorrow, hopefully it won't be awful. I've already booked a hotel room in the next town, skykomish, for Thursday night.