Day 1 reminder

Ahh the trail again. What a knock on the door reminding me what craziness it is.

I did about 8 miles today, but only 6.5 “on trail” miles. The first 1.5 was going down to the border from the pass, and then hiking back up. And yes up. All of those miles from the border were up hill. I recalled the incline, but coming from sea level and going to 8500 feet on day 1 was a bit iffy.

I didn’t get a start until 2ish. So while I only did about as many miles as I started the last time, I did it in a third of the time. So at least there’s a silver lining.

However, the body smack of many miles of incline didn’t serve me well. Got a bit of a belly ache, couldn’t eat too much. Was feeling a bit woozy and tired so got to my camp and found some snow to melt as there’s no water source here.

Got about a liter of it melted between my legs (to save my limited amount of fuel supply) and boiled up the water.

Dehydrated and exhausted, as I went to turn off the water, my hand did something unexpected and decided to smack my freshly boiled water right off the stove and all over the ground.

Honestly, I gave up and just went to bed. At 7pm. It was much needed. I woke up around 11:30pm and was already feeling much better. I had a bit of water in my bottle I’ve been sipping throughout the night (which has been quite chilly at such elevation).

While my first few nights on trail are usually fairly restless due to the lack of noise (I’m used to so much white noise in NYC that anything that breaks the silence out here gives me a little freight until I get back in the grove of being in the outdoors.) however, up on this mountain top the wind has been howling all night. Which actually has been quite relaxing. My tents in a wind free spot so it doesn’t get hit much.

While I did wake up every few hours waiting for the sun to rise, all things considered it wasn’t a terrible night. When I first got into camp I thought it was horrid and I was not well. But a little rest and water do wonders.

About 2 miles to my water source today, so as I wait for the sun to peak over, I get ready for the day and will beeline to water for breaky.