Day 112: Red Rock Pass

Miles Hiked: 28.2

Total Milage: 1900

**To be completely honest I’m writing this blog post and the next two almost a week after this day. I was so tired during this stretch I totally neglected to write my blog and the days all feel like a complete blur. I’m recalling from memory as best I can but it’s hard for me. My bad memory is also the reason I write this blog! 🙂 I’ll forget all the details I want to look back at someday ***

Today I woke up later than usual. I was still tired from yesterday. The morning started with some walking through wide open fields. I saw some antelope walking here and there. Yesterday I asked 12 pack for some alone time over this stretch. We have been hiking together a lot which has been awesome but I really like to have some alone time too. I’m glad he was understanding to let me go off on my own! Part of hiking with partners is understanding that sometimes one person needs to go their own way for a bit. We still ended up camping together every night which was nice but I spent the whole day going my own pace which was really slow compared to normal. I think I’m just trying to get through a rough wave a fatigue. I feel weak on every climb. They feel like they’ll never end and I just want to go home and see my dog and family so bad. This was just a rough stretch for me.

I took a break at Red Rock Pass before doing a long climb. On the way up there were huckleberries I was eating occasionally. They were awesome. I wanted to stop longer but I was going so slow I had to keep climbing. I met a lot of SOBOs along the way and it rained a bit on me. At the top of the climb I got to a sign informing me that I’m walking through the sheep experimental zone for the US department of agriculture. It was a warning about the sheep dogs that protect the sheep. It said not to approach the sheep whatsoever because the dogs were very aggressive and trained to protect them. I learned how aggressive the dogs are a couple days later.

I got some water near the top of the climB. It was the last water source for 17 miles so I cooked dinner there too because I hate carrying extra water to cook with. It started to rain so my break was shorter than expected but the rain didn’t last long. The next thing I did was hike over a beautiful ridge. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole section. It was very exposed and the view was awesome. At the top I met 12 pack making dinner and we picked a place to camp. I got to see a rainbow as I was hiking down the mountain. Right before camp I thought I saw three bears down in the field where we wanted to set up our tents. The closer I got the more they looked like cows. When we set up our tents they ran away and it was three moose!