Day 99: Cube Rock Pass

Miles Hiked: 25.3

Total Milage: 1627.9

This morning I woke up at 4:30am. I didn’t sleep well last night because I was a little paranoid about bears. I have a feeling this will be the case until I finish the trail. I laid in my sleeping bag looking over the map for the day. I was really cold so I didn’t want to get out yet. I tried to fall back asleep. Around 5:30 I started to pack up my things and took down 12 pack and I’s bear bags. We left camp a little after 6am.

The day started with an easy climb up to the top of Hat Pass. My legs were feeling a little sore so I was going slow when it was steep. After that we descended into a valley for a while before climbing up Lester Pass about 10 miles later. I stopped to take a break by myself. I put on sunscreen, took my vitamins, and made a caffeine drink. A little bit later I was at a wide open view where I thought I could possibly see a town very far away. I turned on my phone service to see if I could make a call. I got lucky! I was able to talk to Luke and relax by myself for a while which was so nice. I wasn’t planning on an extra break but I really wanted to talk to him and I don’t expect to have cell service for a long time. It was so nice to just sit down and chat. Usually I am always moving when there is cell service so I can’t really talk to anyone.

After my phone call I tried to hike a little faster to catch up to 12 pack. He left me a jolly rancher and some smiley faces in the dirt on the trail. Whenever one person is in front and we haven’t seen each other for a while we usually draw smiley faces in the dirt to let the other person know that you passed them. After climbing over two passes I eventually caught up to him. Before climbing up Lester pass we stopped to soak our feet in the river for about 10 minutes.

At the top of Lester Pass we took a lunch break. After that we descended for most of the day with about 2,000 more feet of climbing before camp. We walked by so many more massive lakes and lots of rocks. I found myself wondering if the Wind River range has more rocks, soil, water, or mosquitoes. To end the day we ended up hiking another alternate up Sharon Pass and down to Cube Rock pass to connect back up with the Knapsack col alternate. The landscape was absolutely incredible. Once again, I think the winds are the coolest place I have ever hiked and I really want to come back and hike other parts that’s I didn’t get to see. We ate dinner at Cube Rock Pass. I had Mountain House biscuits and gravy which were so good especially at the end of another hard day. We got to camp around 8pm and I was utterly exhausted. I can’t wait to get to town and sleep in a bed.