We loaded up on backpacking gear and decided to spend a week in Washington. That’s about as far as we got in terms of planning. Once on the ground at Sea-Tac we huddled up and searched for trails, eventually agreeing on The Enchantments, a well revered section of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of central Washington.
We woke up before the sun to snag backcountry permits from the nearest ranger station. While waiting for the station to open, we met a few other hikers with similar intentions as us—one was named Tamrin, and we got to talking.
Tamrin, or Tammy, was in his mid 30s, originally from Israel, and currently living out of and traveling around the Pacific Northwest in his car. While in line we found that we were planning on backpacking the same trail, so we decided to join forces and hike together.