Day 106-people watching

Today was a good day... After my morning meltdown. I packed up my stuff and got going close to 7, but only about a mile into the hike I began to get attacked by hundreds of Mosquitos. I was swatting them left and right but more just kept coming so I began to run down the trail to get away. It didn't work and for a good five miles I was swatting them and yelling some choice words at the irritating insects.finally as I began to climb the goat rocks I got away from them. Early in the climb I saw a dad with his kid. Pretty normal except the dad was carrying two guns on his shoulder and neither of them had packs or even water. That set the tone for the day. I would see as interesting people as I would on a trip to Walmart. Down the trail I saw a large group of teenagers with the parents straggling behind. In that group alone there must have been 8 wife beaters and as many trucker hats. Then around noon i saw a guy in a dress shirt and jeans getting water and then his pack fell in the stream. He sprinted down the mountain and dove in and got his pack and waved to me like nothing happen. The strange assortment of people continued the whole day. I probably saw 150 people total. The goat rocks were pretty amazing. Definitely the best Oregon or Washington has offered so far, but it did not even compare to the sierras. Even so, the views of Adams, and St Helens were great and the view of rainier only got better as we walked on 6000 foot ridges towards it. In the last 2 miles of the day I even got to see the goats of the rocks. There were between 5 and ten and as soon as they saw me they bolted up the rocks. They move a little quicker than me. I had forgotten how tough it is to walk on snow. I am tired out from the 32 mile trek through the snowy goat rocks. There is 5 miles to white pass (trail mile 2303) tomorrow and then it's 279 miles in 9 days to stehekin where I will meet up with my special guest who will finish the trail with me.