It is amazing how having someone to talk with when hiking makes the miles go quicker and with less pain. I knew I wanted to attempt another 20+ miles today. If I could accomplish this it would make tomorrow a short day into Monarch Pass, allowing me more time to hitch a ride to the town of Salida where my food resupply is waiting for me at the Simple Lodge & Hostel. Even more important, my Salomon shoes are there, getting me out of these clunky boots that weigh too much and are too stiff for simple trail hiking. But, 20 miles is at least a ten hour endeavor. That’s a long time to walk by yourself.
Over the past few days I have cultivated a little trail family consisting of Puddles, Sunny D, Apples, Man Hands, Pig Pen and Monk. Today, Apples and Puddles made the miles slip by. 21 miles was still tough, but so much easier when a big chunk of the day was spent chatting with amazing people.
I woke up a little later than usual, 5:30. Last night I was so tired I wasn’t sure if I could drag myself out of my nice warm down quilt until 8:00. But, I knew I had 20 to do today and I knew it would be tough after such a long day yesterday. Pop Tarts for breakfast instead of cooking oatmeal made everything go quicker and I was on the trail by 6:10am. I heard Puddles and Sunny D discussing today’s distance and hike so I knew they were awake, but no one was up when I slipped out of the area, passing Apples’ and Man Hand’s tent a few hundred yards up the trail.
I plodded along, trying to conserve energy. I knew I would be tired from yesterday’s big miles so I walked accordingly. At about five miles I found Monk packing up. He had moved ahead last night. At about 6.5 miles Apples caught up with me. I was listening to a book and she too, had head phones on. We got to talking. My pace picked up. We compared lives and trips and future plans and families and before I knew it we had 12 miles under our feet.
We stopped for lunch at a water source, a culvert under a logging road. Puddles caught up with us as we were finishing up. Puddles and I took off at a good clip and got another 4 or 5 miles in while talking about her future plans, her parents, ski patrol, and life in general.
We had to step off the trail to let two motorbikes pass. A few minutes later we found them parked at a nice overlook enjoying the view. We chatted with them for about ten minutes, comparing walking to motorbike riding on trail. They were doing a 70 mile loop that day.
Back on the trail, it got really steep and rocky. Puddles left me in the dust, and I found myself marveling that they could even ride their bikes up some of the sections of the trail that I had to use my hands on to climb over, it was so steep.
After about 18 miles, I am in grunt-through-it-mode. Man Hands passed me about half a mile before the water source. At the water source, a small crick tumbling down the steep hillside we were all assembled, except Puddles, she had moved on toward the saddle 0.3 miles ahead where we all hoped we would find a flat space to camp. I took three liters of water for the night.
Man Hands and Apples camped on a flat spot on the side of the saddle, hoping to take advantage of the wind to keep the mosquitoes at bay. I camp a couple hundred feet closer to the bottom of the saddle finding a nice flat spot with a good breeze. Puddles, Sunny D and Pig Pen all moved farther ahead spurred on by a comment in FarOut that described an idyllic campsite with a fire ring and a great easterly view.
I made my goal of being horizontal more minutes than vertical by 10. 11 hours and 50 minutes of hiking. But with a nice lunch break in the middle, stretched on the meadow eating and talking I think I got some good down time.
Really looking forward to Salida town tomorrow and getting a lighter, more appropriate shoe for trail walking. Also, a solid zero day to recover some energy.
I had Mountain House beef stroganoff for dinner, but I dumped in a bag of my dried broccoli and a bag of dried spinach to add some vegetables to the meal. Delicious. Also had a cup of chocolate pudding.
because it had thundered during lunch and then rained lightly for 15 minutes while walking after lunch I had stowed my solar panel, meaning my 10,000mamp battery didn’t get charged all the way. It had enough juice to charge my watch and phone, but not my PLB, which was down to 5%. Have to figure something out for that in the morning.
What a great day!
This is a typical jumble of downed trees that is everywhere along the trail and throughout the forest.
The trail occasionally bursts out into these open meadows with long views ahead. Monarch pass is at the base of the tall mountain in the foreground.
Sometimes the trail passes thru Aspen forests. Here it passes thru a stand of small conifers.
The trail ran the ridge tops at times. Man Hands is on trail just entering the trees at the left of the photo.
This is the ridge top meadow I camped in. Notice the dark clouds. It thundered during the day and sprinkled lightly, enough to merit wearing a rain coat for an hour.
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