When we went to bed in our hotel, I joked that I hoped Racoons didn't get my food for the second night in a row. Well, we were awaken by a critter trying to claw its way through the cieling at 6am. I thought it was Roger stealing my food again.

We met with a high school friend of mine for breakfast. Kevin Sink, Laura and I graduated high school together. It was great seeing him again. It is always amazing to find out how life turned out for those you grew up with, and even better when life seems to have treated them well. Thanks for the visit Kevin!

Kevin and his dad used to go on bike tours together, and I have to think his biking stories influenced me in a positive way when we were young.

Camping at Bay View was great. Showers were cheap, and Al paid only 12 bucks for all of us! I found out later Al even paid for TJs shower. Cool. A racoon did get into my snack bag that night, unzipping it even, and eating my red vines. I assume it was a coon, it could have been Roger anyways.

We did it!

We started off today with a "fantastic" breakfast in the room, donuts, cereal, yogurt, same ol', same ol'. I have come to realise that the only thing that I have became really sick of on this trip is the food, there's just nothing great. I miss your cooking mom!!!!!!!

It didn't get as cold last night as the prior night. The prior night was in the low 40s, which is well past the lower limit of my camping gear. Last night was in the upper 40s. The difference is huge, really!

We left our campground in a hurry. We had missed our last two grocery stops, and were living off of our packed emergency food. I had 4 packets of dry oatmeal as my only food, so I ate two of them and hit the road. Laura finished off everything she had packed except for a single ramen packet.

We saw this awesome looking slug near our tents.

Sorry for the late post, pictures to be added later.

So, today we conquered our last mountain passes, Washington and Rainy. As it turns out, that was the easy part of the day.

Sorry for the late post. PIctures to be posted later.

We left Twisp, with the goal to hit the base of Washington-pass, or even a bit further. This would eliminate a lot of climbing and make the summet easier to hit because everything after Twisp was uphill. It was supposed to be an easy day.

There must not have been any cell service because I have not gotten a call from Roger tonight. They hoped to make it to a campground about 5 miles out of Mazama. This would give them an easier day today, resting up for tomorrow. They have 2 more passes to do, back to back, Washington Pass and Rainy Pass. These passes are going to be hard on them. They are all tired and the seriously steep climbs of the past few days have all their knees hurting.

Since there has been sightings, some much to close for comfort, with moose, bears, and mule deer, I'm hoping all is well and I hope to hear from Roger tomorrow night.

It was probably the most amazing and most challenging day of our lives, and we had posted very little. I updated the day with a ton of pictures, none of which can do the day justice. Check it out.

http://benthub.com/node/842

Looking back at this sends chills down my spine.....for several reasons. I hope you enjoy the photos....it was tough narrowing it down to only a subset of pictures.

We got up around 7 o'clock and got ready and went downstairs to have breakfast at the Cariboo Inn's restaurant. We hit the road around 9:30.

The area looks like a desert.

Apple farms with nets. Others used noise makers that sounded like shooting.

I added photos to day 31. Sorry for the delay. They include my only bear picture, and our start on Sun Road. Some amazing stuff, really.....I promise. Check it out!

http://benthub.com/node/841