Ups and downs

While I woke up as the son rose, around 5:15, I was still pretty tired and pooped, so decided to wait another half hour and rest a little longer. 

I was out at 7am and got into camp around 7:30pm, doing about 28 miles. The only kicker from yesterday’s smooth gradual descent for the entire day, I climbed up in elevation enough to walk to the tip of the Empire State Building 4 times (about 6000 feet). Of course, the day ended with a big up hill, which may not have been terrible if I were fresh with strong hiker legs. But I’ve only been back on trail three days and had done 25 miles before the big ascent began. The day was full of ups and downs. It was almost like a roller coaster (a very, very slow rollercoaster).

Oh well, the good news is there was again not much of any snow. A couple small patches here and there, but nothing with bad postholing or that lasted very long. Where I’m camping tonight was supposed to be the “start” of the snow. But that lasted less than half a mile with patches I could go around pretty easily, so all in all, a good day.  

In addition to all the hikers on trail the last few days, apparently they just opened up the motorbike trails and they were buzzing today. I must have seen at least 10 if not more. It’s always tough seeing them whiz by knowing they could be to Monarch Pass in a couple hours... where it’s going to take me a long day and a half. 

I was, however, guzzling water down again! Not sure why I’ve been drinking so much water the last few days. I didn’t even drink this much in the desert. Guess my body just needs to get used to this again. 

The positive to doing two larger days, is I now only need to do less than 15 to get to Monarch Pass, where I’ll grab a hitch into Salida. I’ll grab some more food for the next stretch and shower up and rest in a bed before hitting the next stretch. No more zero days for a while, so need to do these halfers to give a little rest.