Not many signs of fall up in the high country. There are still plenty of berries that I wish I had time to pick. I saw the tail end of a bear scampering up the trail on the way up O'Neil Pass which prompted me to start yelling "Hey bear!" every five minutes or so. However, my hooting and hollering did not seem to faze the bear I saw by Marmot Lake. I must have yelled at it for several minutes before it ambled off into the bushes, fattening up on berries.
I really didn't see many people at all the whole time out there which I thought was a little strange for Labor Day weekend. I didn't see a tent until Home Sweet Home and didn't see a person until I hit the Upper Duckabush.
Totally blue bird day from sunrise to sunset. I did get pretty roasted climbing up Anderson Pass and LaCrosse Pass. I've never been up LaCrosse Pass and was blown away with the views! Wide open meadow with stunning peaks all around. The 1,000 switchbacks down LaCrosse Pass, however, were not pleasant. There were lots of blowdowns on the LaCrosse Pass and Upper Duckabush trails that made getting into any sort of rhythm difficult. I got off trail and a little lost getting back to the Upper Duckabush camp. There was a mess of blowdowns and the trail just disappeared. I started to get really worried and eventually found a stream and sat down to filter water, consult my map and calm myself down. The trail crossed this stream somewhere downstream of where I was, so I traveled in the stream and eventually found the trail again. This ordeal sapped a good bit of my energy which made the climb back up to First Divide pretty unpleasant.
I tried to hang in there thinking I was pretty close with only 13 more miles to go back to Staircase. It worked for a little while as I tried to think happy thoughts about all the times I've hiked, camped, and ran along the N Fork Skokmish trail, but the last five miles became a death march when it should have been easy, flowy miles. My experience getting lost and encountering a bear that couldn't give a f*ck really makes me reconsider doing another long route solo, which is unfortunate.
Overall, beautiful route over challenging terrain makes me love and appreciate the Olympics that much more.