Miles Hiked: 24.3
Total Milage: 2095
Today I woke up around 6am. It was still kind of dark out and very very windy. I thought the weather might be bad today because of how ominous it was when I woke up but it ended up being a beautiful day! There was quite a bit of climbing to be done today and it looked really intimidating on the map. Luckily the trail was built and graded incredibly well so although the climbs were long I didn’t feel like they sucked a ton of energy from me. To start the day I had a smoothie pack my mom sent me and a “protein puck” for breakfast. I was nervous my stomach might be as bad as it was yesterday.
The first 4 miles were downhill. I grabbed some water at the bottom before starting a very long climb up cutaway pass. There were some very long switch backs so it made the 2,000 foot climb feel a lot nicer than some of the short steep 500 foot climbs along the Idaho border. At the top of Cutaway pass I took a break before hiking on. I dropped down into a valley before doing a second long climb up to Rainbow mountain. At the top of Rainbow mountain I took another break but much longer this time. I gave Luke a call since I had some cell service. Rainbow mountain was very pretty. I was glad I had such a nice view while I made myself a tuna wrap with Mayo. Mayonnaise makes tuna wraps taste so much better! Rainbow pass marked the halfway point of my day and it also meant I had already finished most of the climbing. I had to drop into one more valley and climb one more big mountain side before the rest was all downhill.
The last climb was the prettiest part of the day. There was a 360 view with mountains all around and a very blue Seymour Lake. I got a cool picture on an outcropping of rocks. At the top of the last climb I was feeling very tired. I took lots of breaks on the last 9 miles downhill to camp. I stopped at a stream and soaked my feet for a short period of time because they were hurting and I sat down to take lots of short breaks. For dinner I had some Ramen and Hot chocolate. I camped at Lower Seymour Lake campground. A free National forest campground. When I got to camp I was craving town food so bad. 12 pack and I had a 45 minute conversation about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I thought it was really funny how hikers fantasize over the simplest food. I decided that I’ll be buying some PB and J to pack out in the next town.
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
Des Hikes Thru 