Day 112- the real north cascades

It was freezing when I woke up this morning. It was so cold that I started out with my hat and gloves on until it warmed up. It may have been cold, but there were not so many clouds in the sky and it looked like I may actually get some sun today! Sure enough after my first climb to a pass the sun was shining right in my face. I completed the tough up and down section of snoqualmie pass to Stevens pass. I walked through the Stevens pass ski area and across highway 2 to begin the next section to stehekin. Immediately I was greeted with a slow gentle graded trail to walk on for over three miles. It was the first flat trail I have had in days. Soon enough the trail got to business climbing past Janus lake into the true north cascades. Walking on sharp ridges that give way to passes at 6000 feet made up of meadows full of wildflowers. It's so amazing. Factor in the snow and it is truly beautiful. I finished out the day walking past pear lake where I grabbed some water to camp with. On my walk down to the lake off the trail I began to get chased by a dog. It scared me a bit but I recovered. The owner came after him soon. It wasn't a problem, the real problem was that the guy had the best camp site at the lake so I had to climb the next pass and found an even better spot in a big green meadow. It could be another cold night. All the day hikers I passed today said that it would be nice the next three days, but I didn't see anything but clouds for the last few hours of the day.