July 28

The Goat Rocks have proven themselves to be worthy of all the hype. Absolutely stunning scenery in all directions. Poptart and I have our hiker legs too which is great! We hiked 10 miles before 11:00 and had a huge snack session before our 3400 ft. climb into the Goat Rocks. We met Big Dave as he was finishing up some section hiking, and he told us how windy it was on top so we decided to do lunch just before the ridge and save the last 1000 ft. for after lunch. 

We left our lunch spot after an hour of eating/napping in the sun and at 3:00 started the climb. It took me two hours to get up because I kept stopping to take pictures and videos and more pictures and more footage. My camera battery is going to have a hard time making it through this section. The scenery is second to none on this trip. When I finally made it to the top I took a sweeping video of the panorama and soon after, a huge cloud moved in and totally engulfed me. It was so surreal and unlike anything I've experienced before. To be completely enclosed like that at the top of a peak watching a cloud roll over below, above and around you is just incredible. When Louis arrived, we sat for another hour on top of the pass taking pictures of each other and together and of the panorama.

We came down from the peak and are camped at a site about 18 miles from yesterday's site. There are absolutely no mosquitoes it is a cloudless night and, for the first time, I am cowboy camping it in the wilderness with a blanket of stars above me. Just an unbelievable day. The only downer of the day us that Louis may have shin splints and we might have to split up for a bit so he can rest. We'll know more tomorrow, and we had some great trail magic tonight with our camp neighbors bringing us rice, bean and cheese burritos. As soon as they heard we were thru-hikers they brought even more and there was enough for both of us to have 3 burritos each. What a great day today was...