We are TIRED. We thought today would be an easy day with just 24 miles, but it ended up being 6000+ feet of elevation gain, 3 climbs, I had cramps the whole day, and we were just very slow moving.

Thankfully, there were huckleberries literally the entire day on both sides of the trail to gorge on.

We had what I believe to be one of the steepest miles of trail yet at the very end of the day today. More than 1000 feet per mile, up to our campsite which was at the top. Not. A. Fan.

On the bright side, it was just us at the campsite and the five of us had some good laughs at the top before tucking in for the night. Love camping with friends!

Hallelujah! We hiked 12 miles in to the Stevens Pass parking lot to meet Carol who trail angeled us all day! She brought us donuts, and came to get breakfast and beers with us and all our friends raved about how amazing she was. Thank you Carol!!! She completely made our day.

We got to explore Leavenworth’s finest dining, set up at our lovely KOA, find a hitch back to town in an empty (?) 12 seat van!, and take a free bus ride back to camp at the end of the day. Couldn’t have asked for better cheap amenities to allow us to soak in all this expensive town has to offer.

We soaked in the sun for our impromptu zero day in Leavenworth. Mimosa and Breaking Bad found a tubing company so we floated down the river to town, did our resupplies, then enjoyed beer and ice cream in the evening. Sadly we had to walk four/five miles to and from the KOA today because we couldn’t find hitches/didn’t time things out with the bus. Our only regret!

We finally got the hitch we had all been waiting for: the Tesla. We had a beautiful 40 minutes of self-driving while the driver, a Tesla employee, explained how all the software worked and the kinks they were working on. As you can see, we loved the bat mobile smart doors that open narrower based on how much space the car has around it.

We got on trail around 10:30 and had another hucklberry-filled day. We camped at a lake about 18 miles in which felt like a good amount with heavy packs. Shaman set pace for us on the first 5 miles which flew by as we talked. Things are just better with company, hiking included.