Day 127 Sat Aug 23rd

Packed up early and started hiking by headlamp at 0545, as we climbed the sun came up and we got to experience another Washington sunrise! The sky is just beautiful in the morning, and we climbed higher and saw Mt. Rainier back to the south and the pink sunlight reflection was just spectacular!

More easy walking, but then quite a few ups and downs, but it was an enjoyable day. We made it to Tacoma Pass for lunch and then we found out that we were in the middle of the "Cascade Crest 100" (a 100 mile trail race!) (Stinky....you should have crewed this race!!) What fun! The people at the road were great, so friendly and interested in what we were up to! We chatted with them for 45 minutes and then hiked on passing an aid station along the trail and they gave us hummus and cucumber sandwiches! Then to Stampede Pass where when we got to the road, everyone cheered for us! Ha ha! And then, remember the trail runner from yesterday (Jeff and his wife Julie) well, they were there and they brought beer! Too funny and normally I wouldn't drink beer while hiking, but we were only going another 2 miles and I was thirsty......so beer it was! Oh, and brownies that Julie had made.....yummmm! We hung out there for the longest time, cheering on the runners. It was a great day. The runners and the energy of the crew was great, it made me want to ditch my pack and run with them! I actually found myself almost jogging at one point! It made today's 30.2 miles just fly by! Everytime a runner would come, we'd jump off the side of the trail and let them go by and cheer for them.