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Day 13 (Fri, 8/8).  South Puyallup River to North Puyallup River (3716 ft elev).  Backpacked  6.5 with 2223 ft gain/ 2511 ft loss.

a. "ANDREW" Benchmark Day Hike (En Route).   2.75 miles with 1200 gt gain/loss

Had a good overnight with roaring red South Puyallup River.   The day was basically one up and then one down to camp site.    Then, at the highest pt,  we will do a side trip to look for "Andrew" Benchmark.   Fred and Kim were backpacking to Golden  Lakes and hiking out on Saturday.    We got up around 0615, and left the S Puyallup River camp site around 0640.      At the S. Puyallup River Camp site,   there was a strange rock formation just before the toilet.   Linda told us about it, so,  I took some pictures after using the toilet.  It was great that my left foot tendon was hurting anymore (with loosen shoe laces), and I felt strong.

When we reached the highest point (between S Puyallup River and N Puyallup River),   we dropped our packs and hung the food on a tree for our side trip.    We were able to follow very fainted boot and/or animal trail.     It involved no scrambling but consisted of bushy uphill,  flat meadow,  side hilling on a gentle slope,  and rock hopping to the summit area.     There were some cairn markings, so, some people had been going up there.     When we got there,   looked like the Benchmark was removed but left with bolts and nuts.     But it had fantastic views all around as usual at a high point on a clear day.   

When we went back down to pick up our packs,  we were badly swamped by skeeters.    While I was untying the hanged food line,   Linda and Dave said that there must be over 100 skeeters on my back.   Fortunately,  they did not bite but were very unpleasant.    We quickly moved on about 30 ft to the shade that had some wind, repacked,  and marched on.   3 of us slowly went down the hill including a snack break looking forward to our nice camp site.

The Group camp site at N Puyallup River was along the Rock Walls on an old road.    Looks like there was some logging or mining operations were going on once upon a time.    The best thing was that there was no bugs and flesh water supply was near by.   (Actually,  all the camp sites we had had good water supplies near by.   Robert's water bag and my collapsible water bucket worked out really well for everybody.)

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