We woke up after riding a couple buses the previous day, to the quiet, truly western mountain town of Skykomish. Andrea Dinsmore the trail angel picked us up from there and brought us to the Hiker Haven. It was a wonderful stay we had there, and someone was kind enough to drive us back to Steven’s Pass. Our only option was to keep being determined, we couldn’t do the Glacier Peak wilderness so we would try again here.

“Tomorrow we would go up Stevens Pass and hike south for five days to Snoqualmie Pass, but when morning came I stood on the lawn and talked to Jerry. He pointed to a light crust of snow on the north face of a mountain behind Baring. It was just a thin veil, and he said,

“If there’s still snow in that spot, than the trail is still impassable.” With the heroic attitude I tried to maintain, I knew, you wouldn’t know until you go…”