I'm happy to say that we had some much clearer skies/air this afternoon so I took Salem for a walk around the neighborhood. One of those neighbors had these wonderful grapes ripening on the vine - a sure sign of autumn. I wanted to try one but I refrained and just took a photo.

Finally caught up with my sister and heard her stories of her 92 mile hike on the PCT. They had a good time but they met several thru-hikers that were so disappointed - the PCT is closed from Harts Pass to the Canadian border so all these hikers who started at the Mexican border in April or May, made it this far (that's just 27 miles short) and won't be able to finish it (at least not now). My sister had planned to hike almost all the way to the closure point just by coincidence. Can you imagine? Hiking 2622 miles and not being able to finish the last 27. Huge bummer.