Monday August 26, 21.9mi/35.2km

Jones Creek (872.5/568ft) to Route 9 (897.2/262ft) (WA) (-2.8mi alt)

I slept great, and packed up by 7:15am. Unfortunately I broke a tent stake in the process, so the next few days I’ll have to be creative when setting up at night. After a very short (0.25mi) bushwhack, I was on logging roads all day. Active ones, too!

There was so much lumber coming from the forest, and it was being extracted with such frightening efficiency too.

Up near the top of the climb, the activity finally stopped, and things were nice and green again.

I stopped and had lunch, and had a great view from the top of Lyman Hill. Looking west, towards Lake Whatcom:

While I was checking my phone messages, I found out I had an unused travel gift card that was going to expire soon. So, I decided that I’m staying in a motel tonight! The descent was easy, and had good views since most of the trees had been cut down.

I got down to the road at 3:30pm, and did the scary 2-mile roadwalk to the next trailhead. I hitched into town from there, and got a ride dmfrom two dudes who just finished a trip in the North Cascades. Perfect! They dropped me off directly at the motel, about two miles out of town from Sedro-Woolley. There was nowhere to get food nearby, so I tried UberEats for the first time!

Not a bad way to end the day!