The four of us managed to get organized and on the trail by 8:30 this morning. Today would be a pretty tough day, long miles with mostly uphill. We took a break at Nickel Creek, which was a very pretty spot. Our next stop was Box Canyon, where civilization hit us in the face in the form of a school bus full of kids. Yee haw. We didn't stay long (for obvious reasons) and resumed the grueling trek uphill. It seemed like we would never reach the top, but finally we did and had a relatively flat stretch for awhile. We had terrific views to the south and east - we could vaguely see Mt Adams in the distance - but of course, Mt Rainier had made it's own cloud and was obscured. Somewhere along in here, we met a girl we had passed on the other side. She was on her next-to-last day - on a pace that would have her finishing in an insane 5 days! She looked none the worse for the wear and, despite our opinion that she was crazy, we couldn't help but be impressed. Also in this section, we spotted a couple of cow elk way off the trail but never a bull. We had one final short push to the top, and then it was blessed downhill the rest of the way to Indian Bar. Indian Bar was an extremely scenic area, but it was also extremely cold there by the time we arrived around 5:00, so we didn't spend as much time enjoying it as we would have liked. Our campmates from Maple Creek had spotted a bear here, so we kept an eye out but unfortunately never saw one. We were disappointed - 9 days out and only marmots and a couple of elk in the wildlife department. We hit the tents pretty early to keep warm on our last night in the wilderness!