Tuesday July 23, 29.2mi/47.0km

Webb Mountain Summit (154.8/5988ft) to Yaak River Road (184.0/2992ft) (MT)

It was already very warm when I woke up at 7am, and becoming hot by 7:30am when I started down the trail. Thank goodness for all the trees, it’s so much cooler in the shade!I hiked a couple of ridgelines all morning, and up here at 6000ft elevation, the wildflowers are still out.There were plenty of lakes today, but they were all down on the valleys… no water up here. Which meant I had to carry double the water that I usually do – 2 liters today! Looking down on Boulder Lake :It seems the PNT is well marked at junctions, and almost never in between them. This was a funny junction with a tree arrow.I reached the high point of the day, Mt. Henry, after 2pm. It was early, so I took a nice long break at the summit tower.Afterwards, there was a loooong descent from 7200ft elevation down to 3600ft. The distance flew by, but my knees weren’t happy. At the bottom was Turner Falls, so I stopped and took a river bath. The water was cold, but it felt good in the 90F air.There was another smaller climb up to a ridge, where I planned to camp. But when I got up there, I could see thunderstorms gathering in the distance. Darn, gotta keep moving, and get downhill. I got down off the ridge, and it started hailing. I kept walking, looking for a nice flat spot to camp… nothing.Eventually, at 7:30pm, I hit the road to town (which I was planning to hitch tomorrow afternoon), and decided to try hitching into town tonight. No cars going my direction, but one going the opposite direction stopped. Mike chatted with me for awhile and offered me a place to sleep in his old camper. Awesome!Mike is a retired mechanic from the SF Bay area, and moved up here to “the Yaak” valley 12 years ago. This is such a different place from California! More rain is expected to come tonight, so I’m happy to be inside!