Miles Hiked: 23.4
Total Milage: 1603.6
Today I opened my eyes at 5am and everything hurt so bad I didn’t want to move. I let 12 pack wake me up which is a rare occasion. I didn’t move until 6am. It was pretty painful to pack up my things. My back was absolutely killing me. We left camp around 7am which is very late for us. I knew it would be a long day just because yesterday was so tiring.
We started the day with a super steep climb up Texas pass. The top was so cool. In the winds, the passes feel like you’re going through a portal to another world of mountains. On the other side of the pass was a massive blue lake. The trail looked like it dropped straight down the edge. It felt like it practically did. It was an extremely steep and slow descent. I was so happy when we got to the bottom and I could finally stretch my legs on some flatter terrain. We passed by many more very large lakes before taking a break for breakfast. I ate a granola and blueberry mountain house that was very delicious. I’m glad I saved it for a hard day! When my parents came to visit they gave me enough mountain house meals to make it to the next town and some green belly meals as well. I feel like I have been absolutely spoiled with some very delicious and healthy food this week. I’m glad to have it when I feel like I really benefit from it!
After breakfast round two, we continued hiking to meet back up with the actual CDT. The route we took yesterday through Cirque of the Towers is actually an alternative route. When we finally did meet up with the CDT I took a wrong turn and hiked the wrong way. Luckily I noticed about 0.7 miles in but 1.4 miles of extra hiking on a long day isn’t fun at all. It wasn’t until around noon that we were on the actual CDT again and way behind schedule.
For the rest of the day we were walking through wide open fields with rocks here and there. We passed by a ton of lakes too. Everyone always talks about how bad the mosquitos are in the Wind River range but no one told me how much water is here! I think I’ve seen more lakes in one day here than in any other place I have been to. There are also lots of very wide and shallow creeks we have to cross. I was able to get some cell service today and make a 10 minute call to Luke before I lost it again. It was a huge morale booster. I wasn’t expecting to have any service for a long time and I hate going really long without talking to anyone from home.
12 pack and I stopped to make dinner at a lake two miles from camp. It was 7:30pm. We were just so slow today. Both of us were so tired and sore and we constantly took breaks. Not to mention our very late start. We got to camp around 8:30 which will probably be the norm for the rest of the trail. In grizzly country it’s important to make dinner away from your camp and hang up all your food when you get there. We both think that if we ate at 5pm and set up our tents at 6 or 7 that we would be too hungry to not bust open our food bags again at camp. I was absolutely tired again and fell asleep before I could finish writing my blog.
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
Des Hikes Thru 