August 4
Deep lake to Trap Lake 18.3 miles 7:15-4:15

In the middle of the night I heard the rustle of a large animal. We haven’t been hanging bear bags, just using supposedly bear-proof bags and hanging them on the side of tree 100 feet from camp. I was cowboying it and heard distinctly the crash which had to be a large animal, woke up Bennett who was in the tent, got my light and saw a large buck walking through our camp. He didn’t scare when I spotlighted him, just ambled through and when I was about to fall back asleep, he came back. The stars were amazing just then, the moon rose later nearly full. Had a long climb up to start the day– was a day filled with lakes and other hikers, kept running into people, some more talkative than others. Did learn there will be detour in the next section because of forest fires, but we’ll have to weigh options when we get to Skykomish tomorrow. Tonight we camped beside a beautiful lake, perfect spot except the wind has really picked up and it is very cold. This is amazing country.