August 4
888 – 903
I woke up cold so I dressed warm. Which means I’ll be stopping for wardrobe change every few minutes.
The day started with a climb that wasn’t a pass but could totally be a pass. And a really pretty stream with fish in it. I see hikers with fishing poles. It’s a good idea. If you like eating fish. Maybe I wouldn’t like cooking them. I tried to not take my usual huge breaks. There were too many pretty places.
Beautiful for awhile then the smoke rolled in. Plenty of JMTers, older fellas looking for a long chat.
I was sitting under a tree, messing with my phone. All of a sudden my iPhone made this movie from my photos of me and my coworkers last year in Korea. It had me in tears in seconds.
The forest fire sunset is beautifully and eerily orange. It lasts at least an hour too. Maybe not really a sunset, just a lot of particulate in the air. The light is an amazing color, though.
The last bit of forest had had some kind of cataclysm where a bunch of trees got blown down. Lots of forest fire fuel laying around. And bear hiding places.
Guess what I found sitting on a stump at my campsite? A Toaks titanium cup. No lid or cozy but I can improvise. It’s a lot lighter than my blue enamel cup. But not as pretty.
Spinstera 