Today is a slow day at the conference, so I made plans to meet up with my high school friend Pete and do some hiking. Pete and I lost touch briefly after high school during which time we chose almost identical career paths and now get to reunite at most places where microbial ecologists congregate. I met up with Pete and his former labmates Stephan and Tim, as well as Tim's friend Elyse. We set out in Pete's rental car for points northward.
Our destination was the Boulder River Wilderness in Mt. Baker National Forest. After about an hour of driving we arrived at our destination. We hiked into the river valley, it was woody and remote and quiet. We climbed down to get closeups of hidden waterfalls, ran into some strange Germans, and also a friendly guy carrying a gun. In all we hiked about 7 miles and had a good time. It was great to get back out on the trail and catchup with Pete.
