It was breezy and surprisingly warm this morning – too warm to be wrapped up in a down bag.  We seem to have traded in the multitude of mushrooms for another resident of the Pacific Northwest: giant green slugs.  We saw two oozing around our tent while packing up and countless others on the trail today.  We started off by finishing yesterday’s climb.  It took us up to a sunny ridge with wonderful views of the major Cascade peaks.  In front of us (to the east) was Mt. Adams.  To our left, northeast, we could barely see the rounded peak of Mt. Rainier. To our right, now in the rear-view mirror, was Mt. Hood – no longer hidden by clouds. We continued up this ridge, alternately climbing and dropping and sweating in the heat.  I’ll take that over rain any day. We stopped at a small creek for lunch before tackling the rest of our miles for the day. The afternoon was much the same, except for less climbing and fewer views.  We crossed a few meadows and bushwhacked around a wasp’s nest in the trail.  Some courteous hiker-victim before us had left a note begging us not to be heroes – “they drew blood!”  No problem!  We ended the day at Panther Creek Road, just before the creek of the same name.