August 10th, 2024
Mile Marker: 1194
Miles Hiked: 21
I woke up this morning groggy as ever and feeling like I wanted to take a zero day. My body just felt off and exhausted. However, I knew that we needed to get out since everyone else was and plus we had a free ride. I’ve told myself we will take a zero in Lander!
Around 8 Journey, Tia, Grady, and I went to the hotel breakfast and I annoyingly found myself on my phone trying to finish up a couple things before I was out of service again. This is the pro/con of thru hiking. You get to get away from your phone and the world but once back in cell service you have to take care of things in a very short window before you are back on trail.
Anywho, it was still a good time together and then Journey and I went to pack our bags.
Around 10 AM we went to pick up Whatever, Aster, and Captain and all squeezed into the little Kia Tia and Grady rented. We were so grateful Tia was willing to drive us back up to the pass. I’m reminded how convenient it is to have your own car. I felt myself longing for normal life this morning. It was a strange surge and I almost felt confused.
While going back up to the pass we ended up having to wait for construction to get done and had about 20 minutes to spare so we hopped out of the car and decided to weigh all our packs with Tia’s scale. It was fun to guess what we thought it was, I was right in the money, 27 pounds. I had the second lightest pack to Captain at 25. Aster’s was 28, Journeys was 29, and Whatever had the heaviest at 32.
Once we got back to trail I gave Tia a big hug goodbye and instantly felt sad. It had been so fun to have them come out and hang but it all went by fast.
We started hiking and Journey and I were moving quick. We had hiked the first 6 miles of this trail before and it was relatively flat so we moved quickly.
We decided to take a different second half of the route back to the CDT as it seemed faster and since a storm was coming it we could see it stayed lower in elevation and in the trees.
The trail was beautiful. Green, tons of water, and cloudy skies.
We ran across this memorial on the tree. I can definitely tell how someone’s heart is in the winds. This place is magical.
The dark clouds were soon over us and we started to feel a light sprinkle. We waited to put on our rain gear and by the time it really started to come down, I was running for the trees to get at least a little coverage.
Journey and I put on our rain jacket and pants and then decided to find a spot in the trees to wait out the storm, it was coming down hard and the lightning was close.
We found a spot in a circle of trees and I immediately put in my mid layer as I learned from last time just how cold it can get to wait out a storm. Shortly after 15 or so minutes the rain seemed to have slowed down and the thunder and lightning went away.
I was pleasantly surprised, it was still windy and cold but we decided we could get back out. If it started to get bad again we would try to find a place to set up camp.
We headed out and saw the clouds making strange shapes and views.
After about an hour we stopped for water as the rain had stopped and Captain caught up to us. We discussed possible camp options and then continued on. Whatever and Aster went a different way this morning as they planned to do a high route.
We had a few miles to climb Hat Pass and then descend down to a lake for camp.
We climbed quickly and had pretty views as the rain clouds passed. We were itching for the sun to come out and warm us up.
We walked past multiple lakes and took pictures of the reflections. It was so still after the storm had gone through.
We made it to camp around 8, struggling a little bit to find camp. We are near a lake and know very well that we will be covered in condensation tomorrow morning so we are already planning to set out our gear to dry at lunch.
We made some dinner, caught beautiful sunset skies, and got into our tents a little after 9.
It’s extremely cold tonight and my toes feel like ice! I’m snug in my sleeping bag and hoping to get warmed up. A successful day, we made it way farther than I thought and will have a big day tomorrow exploring the winds.
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 