September 4th, 2018
We had a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier from our campsite this morning as we ate breakfast, first coffee, and second coffee. It was very cold when we started hiking, but once we started moving we warmed up enough to take off our coats and gloves pretty quickly. Sky-Blaze and Goldilocks had been missing for a few days, but they caught up to us this morning and explained that they had gotten vortexed for much longer than expected in the last town, Packwood. At lunch time we got lucky and received wonderful trail magic from Mad-Baker, Lori, and Earl. We had soda, vegan cookies, vegan potato salad, chips, and they gave us three vegan kielbasas for the trail. We hiked on for a few more hours, and then set up camp near a spring. We cooked the kielbasas for dinner along with one of our usual meals. For desert, Sky-Blaze surprised us with an entire quart of huckleberries that he picked as a late birthday present for me, complete with a birthday candle on top. The views of Mt. Rainier and the surrounding mountains were remarkable all day.
Vegan kielbasa! Love it. Best oxymoron ever!