36er

This morning I woke up earlier than usual, likely due to the heard of cows that were grazing around my tent. I was up on a little hill, so they didn’t bother me, but their sounds definitely had me up. As the sun was rising and it was light out, I just decided to roll with it and got cooking with coffee and breakfast. 

Around 6:15, I made my way from camp and started the day. Thought about maybe 25-28 miles, but didn’t really have much of a plan. 

Soon after I started up, I saw Early Bird pull up behind me. She rolls with 12 Pack and Freefall a bunch, and while I had seen her, we never actually met until I passed her tent last night. We passed a few tents with people still sleeping, and then she jumped off trail for a minute and that was the last I saw of her for the day. 

The terrain was smooth and beautiful. Forested with lots of dirt trail (opposed to dirt roads). There was a bunch of snow towards the beginning that I had to navigate without much post-holing, but still an occasional drop down a few feet while trying to skirt across the crusted tops. 

Because of all the snow, the trail was quite wet and muddy, but nothing worse than it has been, and not even as bad as it has been down south a bit, so no real complaints. 

A few hours into the day, I run into Roger That pulling some water from a creek we crossed. He had camped a few miles ahead of me last night pulling in about 20. We hiked on for a bit together and then he got a bit of a bloody nose and stopped at a bathroom that was by a lake to drop some garbage and tend to his nose. We had just hit 10,000 feet, but he said it was pretty uncommon. He’s an emt as well, so he knew he was fine and I continued on. 

He had mentioned he was going to pul 32 or 33 to get to a campground that has a faucet on a lake with another bathroom, so I decided I might try to shoot for that as well. However, that would put me at about 36 miles for the day, so wasn’t holding on to that notion. With rolling thunderstorms over head (but no rain yet) it was quite smooth hiking, cool temps, no sun glaring down. Not bad at all. 

As the day wore on, I descended down some gradual terrain, and had a few little bumps of a few thousand feet before getting to a flattish part that would bring time to the camp. Just I started to ascend, it started to rain. Usually when it rains while hiking, I just get wet. There’s no real use for rain gear because it’s not terribly breathable and makes me sweat anyway. So either or, I get wet. However, the temperature very quickly dropped. So I was wet AND cold. The rain soon turned to sleet, which soon turned to heavy wet snow. I threw on my rain gear to keep warm, and my body heat actually dried out my clothes a bit. But man was it coming down. 

At a few points, it was almost full white out conditions with no more than 100 meters of visibility. The snow started sticking and ended up getting about an inch on the ground. 

My shoes are not at all waterproof, so my feet were wet and cold, as were my fingers. And it didn’t let up for hours and hours. 

Soon, I started to get tired and contemplating pulling off and camping under a tree in a dry patch. But thoughts of a canopy and bathroom (not that I needed one, but it’s nice to have near by) and trash cans really took hold. I decided I didn’t want to camp on the wet ground, and would make my way to the campground. And make my way I did. 

At about 12 straight hours of hiking, I finally made it. I hadn’t seen Roger That for the rest of the day, but did run into Baguette (who started the same day I did) and Jefar, who was at pie town. I found a glorious canopy over a few picnic tables, but by this point the snow had stopped. Either way, it was dry and I could sprawl out my goods. 

About half hour later, Roger That rolls in, and we (he) starts a little fire in a campsite grill next to the picnic tables. Doesn’t really do much for drying our wet clothes out, but feels nice none the less. 

Now we sleep under the protection of the canopy, incase it decides to rain or snow again. Now only 39 miles from the border. Who knows how many miles I’ll pull tomorrow,  but doubt it’ll be 36! My biggest day yet. The good news is, my knee is almost fully healed. Every now and again I’ll few a twinge of discomfort, but not any more than my other knee when descending. All in all, my trail legs seem to have formed.