July 13

Sunday, July 13
Middle Tommy Trailhead
10 miles

Last night was interesting. I thought the wind would make reading outside bareable, no such lukc. So went in the cabin, and shortly thereafter, finished my book. Uh oh, what now?! “I know!” I thought, “I’ll go grab my iPod and zone out to music for a bit”! My hopes were extinguished as I went to turn the power on, and saw that it was already on, had been accidentally switched in my pocket on hike up two days ago. No juice, bummer. So I slapped on my rain gear, put on the bug net, and stared into the cold blackness of an unlit firepit, as hundreds (perhaps thousands, no joke) of mosquitoes tried in vain to fill their evil little stomachs with my blood. This went on for awhile. Then went and explored meadows just west of Blue Creek, found some old horsecamps, and a narrow but very deep stream (4 feet across, 6 feet deep mebbe). It wasn’t ‘til 2230 that I was able to retire to my tent (which was full of bugs and such).
Woke up at 730, called in to Wenatchee dispatch, and puttered around for hours, the hike out today is about 10 miles, and my scheduled pick up is @ 1600, so to leave at 9 would have meant a 4 hour sit. The hike was nice, fairly warm (it was hot), lots of downhill. 7 trees down between Blue Creek Trail and Hunters Trail, 6 trees down between there and Middle Tommy Trailhead.