5th September
squirrels woke me up with their chatting .I lay awake watching the tent get lighter till I needed a wee
It was a gorgeous morning and a nice dry tent hurrah
I packed up but I was in no hurry as Da vinchi was yet to emerge and we planned on hiking together to the finish

We had snacks then hit the trail by 8 am we had planned on doing 15/16 miles a day our mere 3/4 miles yesterday was poor due to excessive beer consumption in town I blame Da vinchi lol
From here to the finish is still going to up so I was dreading the day but With Da vinchi leading he tends to pull me along so it wasn’t long till we arrived at the camp that we should of stayed at last night opps lol
We decided to have breakfast here and fill up with water.
Then we set off again following the roaring river and then climbing higher
The sun was hot and I soon needed to stop to shed a few layers phew it was just gone 10 am and already 80°
We climbed and climbed the views spectacular as ever and views down the canyon even better. We then came to a large creek there was a rope bridge across but we forded it instead.as it was quicker.

The trail was well maintained on this section so we were able to make a good pace and seemed quite popular as we were passed by several section hikers .we hiked on and steadily upwards till we both decided it was lunch time .we saw a nice clump of trees but when we arrived there it was taken by other hikers so we continued on looking for another suitable spot.
At last. We dropped our packs and relaxed ate lunch before continuing on. We had done 12 miles not a bad morning’s work .we agreed we would hike to six then camp and so we were both chilled. Further down the trail we stopped for five minutes and I did my signature in sticks in the dirt I was very pleased with that .we then pushed on till we came to another
large creek crossing but the bridge had been wrecked.

But luckily there was a large tree across a little further downstream so we crossed on that.
We were making good progress but we stopped at four to water up.
Before moving on us. The trail was still up but gentle and in the distance we could here traffic so we were getting close to the road and the trail head. We emerged near the road and hoped that there may be some trail magic but sadly not. Washington has been a bit poor on trial magic compared to the rest of the trail. Well you don’t expect it but its great when it’s there.
We crossed the road visited the toilet and emptied our trash.
There were a couple with two young children chilled out in the back of their pickup they too were impressed with our hike. They offered us water but we had enough

it was then a mile and a half road walk to the next trail head.
As we walked into the trail head a couple stopped asked if we were through hikers then gave us a big bag of peanut pretzels that were so tasty
we then walked into the trail. And continued up and up .Flat spot Da vinchi we need a flat spot up and up we went crossing several small creeks past the 2600 mile marker whoop .Then yes a flat spot
We set up our tents and began cooking tea when early Bee arrived he was going to join us but then found an actual camp spot with fire ring on the other side of the trail. ..How did we miss that lol
we ate and chilled and wow better than expected we had done 22 miles whoop
but tomorrow is a bigger climb!!!!