Woke up several times during the night needing to go pee, but I couldn't go that far from the tent. Ended up going down the road a bit and looked all over but I couldn't find a suitable place to pee. I must have spent a good 15 minutes looking, gave up, then went back to sleep.

That was Freddie's journal entry.

Ended up sleeping in again as usual. Made breakfast and talked with everyone, catching up on unbloggable (but if you buy Craig a beer he will tell you more than you probably wanted to know) trail gossip.

At one point in the morning Gumby complemented Freddie on how nice her coat was.

"It's a Vera Wang", I said.

Today was going to be a little tricky since all the weather reports said clouds were rolling in the afternoon. My phone was dead and I was charging it off the battery, which would soon be dead.

Got out of the campground and back onto the PCT around 8:30am. Freddie took off and was all excited. Already she was trying to save energy but just waiting for me to catch up, rather than frantically running back to me each time she got ahead.

I'm back in my old shoes again, I had Cora bring them last night. I have some new ones being shipped to the house which Cora is bringing out tomorrow. My feet will be cooler, and a lot more dirty now again too.

Was planning on taking a break at Highway 35/Barlow Pass to charge stuff and rest Freddie. All of the sudden I realized I had gone past the Twin Lakes junction, argh! I had gone 1.5 miles past mile 2100. At least I have some standards and didn't walk back to the Mile 2100 spot to take photos. Instead I took a break there at mile 2101.4 and took them there. Some other hikers went by and Double-it and Gumby showed up. Did a bunch of Internet and got going again.

The climb up to Timberline Lodge wasn't bad until the end. It started getting a bit hot for Freddie and she was ready for a rest. Someone had left a 12 pack of Coors Light near the trail so I put one in Freddie's pack.

We got to Timberline Lodge around 1:30pm. There were a lot of people around, but probably nothing like there is on a weekend. As we went past the lodge I started looking for outdoor power outlets. We walked around the parking lot a bit looking for the bathrooms. The kid directing traffic thought there might be something in the "Salmon Lot".

With me getting tired (and a phone call holding on line #2), plus Freddie panting I just decided to go up to the climber's registration area. There was a bathroom there. I tied Freddie up to my pack, but later just brought my pack and her into the bathroom. It was a tight fit.

After that was done I went up onto the deck area where I had seen a power outlet. I set us up behind some elderly people who were looking at the mountain. There I could charge my phone, but have my hobo-looking self kind of hidden due to the design of the building.

One of the elderly women asked if she could pet Freddie and I said sure. Several more people came over to say hello to her...her little packs were quite the draw. I did more Internet and got the phone mostly charged. We left about 3:30pm as the clouds started to roll in.

The next 90 minutes were kind of slow due to all the people on the trail. I remembered the beer in Freddie's pack and decided to drink it real fast to get rid of it. I had never intended her to carry it for any distance. I was able to do that, although I had to stop a couple times and hide the beer when people/kids came so I wouldn't be "that dirty bearded guy drinking a beer in the middle of the trail that he made his dog carry for him".

Since Freddie had her packs on it drew attention to her as we passed by. An Australian couple came around the corner and the woman nearly started crying because she was so excited to see a dog with cute little packs. Another foreign couple passed us, with the guy saying "good job" in broken English as they passed by. After they were gone I thought I heard sleigh bells...then I realized I was actually hearing sleigh bells. The couple were wearing bear bells.

Also passed a family that had the token disgruntled teenager with them, dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt, not looking like he wanted to be around all that nature shit. Another guy referred to my solar panel as a "solar apparatus", that was a new one.

There was also a couple which seemed to be on their first hiking date the way they were acting. The guy kept making jokes and the girl was losing it via laughter. I ended up taking a photo of the two of them with their phone above Zigzag Canyon.

Freddie was doing good overall, just moving along, always wanting to be in the front. I noticed how she had nice trail etiquette by going off the trail to pee, then go back to the trail and continue with walking.

We ran into Beorn around Lost Creek. He said the brunch at Timberline was awesome and one of the best meals he has had on the trail.

We all continued on until we got to the Sandy River. There were a few folks camped in the main campsite. We went to check out the river and it was crossable, but it wasn't anything I felt like dealing with at the moment. Freddie was starting to show signs of being really tired. Rather than staying ahead of me she would just hang out in front and stop randomly to see if we were done for the day. I didn't want to push her farther, nor have to have her wade across the creek. A blog reader named Dave (Hi Dave!) wrote to me yesterday to say that the creek is a lot lower in the morning. Since there was only an hour of daylight left I decided to just set up camp in the lousy spot by the other creek. It is "lousy" in that it could potentially flood if there was a large rainstorm. Beorn said "well, I've had worse" and we decided to camp there.

Freddie is crashed out on her bed now in the tent. I really have to be on the trail early tomorrow since friends are going to be meeting me at Whatum lake. They are getting there early to try and get a spot and I don't want them to have to wait a while.

Since we have to do 24 miles tomorrow, I'm gonna carry Freddie's stuff so she will have an easier time.

Alright, gotta get to bed.