Woke up and broke camp as quick as possible and got the heck out of Devil's Dream! We were quickly at Indian Henry's (one of my most favorite places in the park) which was beautiful in the morning light but still really buggy. The original plan was to eat breakfast here. We kept moving. We started down and found a beautiful stream and filtered water. Then down some more towards the Tahoma river so you know what that means! SUSPENSION BRIDGE! After we crossed the bridge (OK, I crossed twice) we sat down on the far side and had rice & chicken for breakfast. Then we climbed. A grueling climb from about 4300 feet to about 5600 feet. We climbed up and out of a forest and found ourselves on the most spectacular trail on the edge of the Puyallup Glacier. We were so close to the mountain! We climbed up to Emerald Ridge which just might be my new favorite place in the park. I don't really have words to describe it. I wish I had a thesaurus with me. I really wanted to to twirl and sing, "the hills are alive...." but I would have probably fallen and hurt myself. It was a long, difficult trail down to South Puyallup camp. Loose rocks, roots and steep drop offs. It was exhausting. Mileage wise it was a short day but trail wise it was very difficult. We were the first ones in camp arriving about 1:30pm and chose site #2. 2, 3, & 4 are all pretty nice. Thank goodness there are no (well, very few) mosquitoes! There are horse flies though but so far they haven't been a problem. Since we were here so early we took grandpa's bucket with us when we went to filter water and I rinsed my hair. SO GOOD! The water was so gross when I was done. We washed up, filtered water and have been hanging out at camp. We cooked dinner, rice & beans for Dick, spaghetti for me. Now it's 6pm and frankly, I'm ready for bed! Miles hiked = 6.8. Total miles hiked = 70.1
