Mile 2556 to 2569
Oh Lordy. The totally wet shoes I put my feet into early in the morning seemed just that much colder and wetter than in the past. My feet are crying for mercy, sprouting weird blisters and odd feelings that haven't surfaced the entire trip.
We were excited to get into Stehekin, so we woke up a bit early and high tailed it down the trail to grab the earlier of 4 buses that come throughout the day.
Stehekin is a town of less than 100 people, with no connecting roads. The only way to get there is a 55 mile boat ride from Chelan, or a sea plane. The national park service runs most of the town and operates a bus down the single road to shuttle tourists and hikers during the summer.
We hopped on the 12:30 shuttle to take us 13 miles into town. The bus stops at the bakery, about a mile from down town, each time it passes to let hikers grab some delicious calories. We stopped in and grabbed blackberry scones and just before the bus was ready to take us the final mile, a second bus pulled up and off hopped my parents! This was an incredibly lucky rendezvous, as there is no cell service and had we not passed each other, they would have assumed we weren't in town yet and waited at the bakery until the final bus at 6.
We spent a few hours at the bakery, which had amazingly good food for such a small place, and kibitzed over the past few days. The actual town of Stehekin is one large building, but sits right on the edge of a beautiful lake. We sat on the deck for a long time doing a few wifi tasks and relaxing. This is our last official stop on trail, and it may be one of the coolest.
