I awoke to the sound of car doors slamming and people talking. I was a little nervous that the “unused dirt road” I was camped on was suddenly going to have a vehicle driving down it, but the voices moved off and I heard chainsaws starting up. It must have been a trail maintenance group, although I still can’t figure out where they parked.
I kept checking the forecast all day, trying to decide whether or not I wanted to take a zero tomorrow. Originally it was saying rain tomorrow, so it would make sense to take a break, but then it started saying rain the next day instead. Of course, everywhere I looked had a different forecast. By the time I got close enough to Snoqualmie Pass to make a decision, it looked like the rain would hold off and we decided to push through, so I called my cousin Susie and said I didn’t need to be picked up tonight.
We got close to the pass and cut down through the ski hill to get right to food after 22.4 miles. There is a food truck in the gas station parking lot, with a covered area with tables next to it for hikers to hang out. I checked the forecast again and decided maybe I did want to zero tomorrow, and called Susie again to see if she could still come out. She could, so we grabbed some food and moved across the street to the brewery to eat and wait. There was a good group of hikers there and we played Cards Against Humanity for a while until Susie and Dave showed up to grab me and Switchfoot.
They took us to their home in Seattle and had drinks and brownies waiting. We stayed up so late talking that I went right to bed without showering.
These cards are really getting some use!