August 12th, 2024
Mile Marker: 1243.9
Miles Hiked: 26
This morning Journey and I woke up to rain sprinkling on our tent around 5 AM. My first thought was “Oh no” as we weren’t expecting rain until noon but as we have learned the mountains make their own weather.
The sprinkling stopped and shortly after 6 we decided to get up and pack up our tent before it started raining again. We packed up quickly, scarfed down our breakfast, and headed out.
The first big climb of the day was right up Jackass Pass, quite the name no? It was steep and .4 miles of up but didn’t feel nearly as hard as Texas Pass since there was a clearly defined trail the whole way.
We then went down into a valley and up another climb at a similar height. The whole time the views were incredible. More rugged than yesterday even. I told Journey that if there wasn’t other people around I would feel so far away from civilization, truly in the wild.
The rain held off for a bit then while going down the second climb we got rained on for a little before it decided to stop. I was so thankful, the rocks get more slippery when wet.
We passed by Big Sandy Lake where most people come into the Cirque from and passed by this older woman wearing a long dress and no pack and a man behind her carrying a pack who looked like he could of been her son. The woman had delicate features and instantly reminded me of my great grandmother Pearl, who lived until 102. I didn’t know her well growing up, but they had a similar look and when she smiled at me as I passed by, I felt a sense of warmth from her. We walked about .1 from each other and I couldn’t get over the positive aura that came off her, so I turned around to look at her again, just as I was doing so, she had turned around to look at us as well. Weird how that happens.
We then went up another trail that most people don’t hike get up to a saddle. It was another huge climb, the biggest of the day that would top out a little over 11,500 feet.
I felt like we were inching by but progress is progress and we just needed to keep moving. The morning was proving to take us forever.
As we cleared the trees a new set of big mountains came into view and I couldn’t wait to get closer to get a full view.
They were ginormous and beautiful.
I could quickly point out where the saddle was and where we would be going.
About a mile from the top we started to lose trail and I could tell that most people do not climb this saddle or else there would be a solid trail. So we spent a while getting off trail to back to trail even before we started going up.
Then once at the bottom we started climbing and lost trail. It seemed to be the theme of this climb which starts to get old after a while.
We went from steep sandy climbs to hopping over big boulders. I could tell pretty early on that this pass was going to be harder than Texas without a doubt. I could feel the deep fatigue in my legs.
I kept moving though because I wanted to get up and over this thing before it rained again on us. It took us almost 45 minutes to get to the top and once we did, we hopped boulders again for a little then started the descent which was my least favorite part.
Parts of the descent were steep sandy pitches that made me feel like I was going to slip. Or I would have to walk along side the mountain but there was no clear buffed out trail. The excitement of climbing an awesome pass wore off here.
To make matters worse, we kept losing trail. GAH! We eventually made it down the steep part and had to route find for the rest of the descent until we were close to a river.
We reached here around 12:30 and decided we would look for some tree cover and stop for lunch. To our delight we noticed Stove and Columbus sitting next to the trail and joined them for lunch. They had been hiking with friends for the past two weeks so they had hopped around some and got back on trail around Green River Lakes trailhead.
We got the lowdown on their adventure and they ours. I was so thrilled to see them!
It was just a beautiful area but as we descended down and back towards the CDT I could tell we were leaving the big mountains.
Some of my favorite parts of thru hiking is getting to see the landscape change, this one felt pretty drastic.
About 3 miles from the CDT and then some on the CDT the route was filled with a bunch of blowdowns that we had to go around and would frequently lose trail.
I hated having to have my map out constantly but it was the only way we could stay on track it felt like.
We had one more climb up to 10,000 feet then we were able to descend and cruise nicely.
The trail was even smooth for a bit and it almost felt like we were running it was so nice.
Around 6:30 we arrived at a campground and I was pooped. I could feel the energy just drained from my body. We decided to set up our tent and camp early and eat dinner since it was a great location, plus it had a picnic table and privy!
After dinner we noticed Stove and Columbus made it to site for dinner but claimed they were going to hike more after. I also felt like I could keep going but decided it was fine. As I was sitting at the picnic table we noticed a truck with all blacked out windows drive around the campground looking at spots and then come back around and pull into a spot next to us.
We then came upon 2 bull moose! My first time actually seeing on trail! They are huge!
The man then got out of his car and turned the music up and sat at the picnic table. No camping gear. I noticed this as I went to the restroom and as I came back I went to Stove and Columbus and told them I felt weird. 5 minutes later Journey had come back from the bathroom and had went and chatted with the man to see what was up.
The man asked him specific questions about the CDT and when Journey asked what he was doing he claimed to just be hanging out, in the campground, with no camping gear.
Journey also got a weird feeling from the man and I rarely ever see Journey get those feelings so when he asked me if I wanted to hike out, I immediately said yes.
Us 4 rolled out and hiked together. I ended up asking the two if they wanted to camp together and they agreed. Safety in numbers.
They also didn’t care at all about us which was shocking. We had to wave trekking poles and yell to get them to move. So freaking cool!
We then hiked on for a couple more miles and found a spot to stop with a nice view of the sunset. We are hopeful it doesn’t rain tonight but we will see what happens!
Hoping for some sleep as my body so needs it!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 