July 17th, 2024
Mile Marker: 715.9
Miles Hiked: 27
I woke up this morning with a puffy face and eyes. It was hard to go to sleep last night and I found myself wanting to stay in my cocoon of a sleeping bag this morning.
Journey asked if I was okay, I said I was but felt a deep pain. It hurt to think about Nuke and it hurt to not be with my family.
We decided we would do a cold breakfast in bed which meant putting water in our little packages of oatmeal without cooking and putting coffee and hot chocolate in our water bottles. It was good to be out of the mosquitos and getting everything done inside our tent.
It was then time to rock and roll. It was chilly so I moved quickly and we ran into Popeye and Ravenclaw who we met in Darby. They have been having a couple rough days too so it was nice we all were on the same page.
The climb this morning led to some stellar views.
We were then on the ridge for the morning and after 6 miles went down to a cold spring to fill up for a 15 mile carry.
During this time on the ridge Journey and I got cell service and I tried to finalize a shoe and sock order for a town we would be at in a week and half. One hard piece about the CDT is that you do not go into big towns with outfitters very often, which means you have to order shoes ahead of time. So much planning.
Mine are currently already destroyed and I will happily not buy them again since they didn’t last long and have given me countless blisters.
I felt myself becoming easily frustrated with the process, not wanting to have to make decisions this far in advance but really I knew where my feelings were coming from.
I was just upset, period. Thoughts of Nuke would come and I would embrace them for a little and try to cling onto something else.
I thought about how special he was again. How he connected with all of us so well. How he knew what we needed; a laugh or a snuggle.
We had one unusually steep climb that had us both sweating profusely and then it was a mild up and down the rest of the day.
It was hot per usual these days but it wasn’t unbearable. We sat down around 12:30 for lunch and realized we had only hiked 8 miles all morning. It was going to be a long day.
I was able to get shoes sent to a trail angel in the next two towns and felt happy to get that accomplished. Then fixed up my blisters and we headed back out.
We ran into a few NOBOs already and chatted with them about Yellowstone and Wyoming, we will be there so soon!
The trail took us through the trees and I found myself plugging in music to keep my mojo going.
We then popped on a gravel road to get to the next spring. The comments let us know that we should be able to hear the water in a meadow instead of going to the icon. The comments in the Far Out app always save us.
We went over a lot of rocks today and found our feet extremely tender. The last 5 miles from the spring were hard, grit your teeth and get it done.
However, for the last mile we popped over a ridge and felt like we entered into a whole new world. Not many bugs and outstanding views, these may be my favorite since Glacier.
We found a good camp spot up on a hill with a sunset and hopefully a good sunrise.
We then bushwhacked down to a Sacagewa memorial area with a spring, picnic tables, and privy. WOW. How wonderful a picnic table is to cook on.
And very little bugs.
It was the first time in a very long time that it didn’t feel like we needed to rush dinner, and it was so nice.
And we had a little deer visitor that was adorable as they crept around getting closer and closer to us.
I’m just falling in love with these deer and their big ole eyes and ear.
It was a long roller coaster day. I’m so thankful for the views and the thoughts of Nuke. It feels good to take the time to process him even though I wish I was near fam to do it together.
One step at a time.
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 