La Mar's Dance

 

Skykomish and Stevens Pass

 

Leaving Stevens Pass

Denise and I picked up John and Anthony at Steven's Pass. The rain had relaxed into sprinkles by the time we arrived at the pass. The guys were wet to the bone from having slept and hiked in the rain. They complained that their feet sloshed inside their muddy boots as they traversed up and down the mountains. Their teeth beamed smiles when they saw us at  Stevens Pass. I opened the trunk and removed my own backpack to make room for their wet backpacks. They worried that they would get the car seats wet and the floor muddy. Denise and I drove 16 miles to a hotel in Skykomish, the nearest town to Stevens Pass.

The men wanted to take showers before eating dinner. But they chose to eat first since they had no dry clothes. We ate dinner at the pub near the hotel, and then I took Anthony to the laundromat to wash and dry their clothes. John stayed in his room, wearing only his underwear until Anthony returned. 

Loud rumbling motorcycles leaving the bar at midnight and trains huffing and puffing all night long at the station across the street kept waking us up. Anthony was up at dawn trying to find a warm wind to dry his wet tent and wet shoes  He found a fence and happily hung his tent on it. And then the sprinklers began to shower his tent. He ran removed his tent and tried to find any dry place to hand his tent and shoes. The poor guy had no luck. He and John repacked their wet tents and although they now had dry socks, they had to put on wet shoes.  

We went to the local cafe, but it was closed. We found a nice coffee shop that only had bagels and muffins to serve for breakfast. The guys were disappointed, but they ordered muffins and coffee anyway. Anthony ordered a double shot macchiato and began to tell the barista how he wanted it. She explained that Starbucks screwed up the meaning because macchiato meant a dollop of foam on top of an espresso. Anthony was happy.

John found a painted rock while he was backpacking between Chinook Pass and Stevens Pass.

We dropped the guys off where we picked them up the day before.