August 10

2333-2362

In the morning we again check the status of the upcoming fires and again find comforting news. Full steam ahead. We walk across the valley from the Crystal Mountain ski area and have multiple bars of 5G service. I check up on baseball stats, the Mariners are fighting for the division, and download new podcasts as I walk.

For the first time we see tons of ripe, tiny, wild strawberries along the trail. They are the size of a pea, but pack all the flavor of a full size strawberry.

We walk through the remains of the 2017 Norse peak fire, and wonder how many more places will be burned in the coming years.

In the early afternoon we pass by the Mike Urich cabin, a snow mobile cabin open to hikers that lays 200 yards off the trail. This is an infamous place. In 2022 dozens of hikers were sickened here from a norovirus outbreak. The state department of health got involved and sent a team out to investigate. They found that the entire cabin is covered in a thin layer of human feces.

“Hamlet and his team hiked out to the cabin and tested water from the stream. They also swabbed the toilets, the door handles, the tabletops, the poker chips – anything people were touching. While the water samples came back clean, “EVERY single swab tested positive for fecal contamination,” he says.”

Against our better judgement we head inside to check it out. Using our shirtsleeves we open the door, we find a cooler full of beer and sodas inside. It is probably unwise, but we take a beer each and then take a short break outside of the cabin.

The rest of the day passes uneventfully. This is an uninspiring section of trail, crossing multiple former clear-cuts and a maze of logging roads. Most of the forests are second and third growth, with minimal views, so we put on podcasts and cruise along until bedtime. I am listening to podcasts about the politics of the run up to the civil war, and marvel at how much history repeats.