I wake up and my sleeeping bag is the most soaked it’s been yet from the condensation. 😦

I try to pack up quietly, another camper must have arrived late in the night and is cowboyed out on the ground next to me (cowboy camping means you sleep out in the open without a tent).

I grab my food and head out. Lots of water in this area!

There’s an immediate river crossing. I take my shoes off.

The guys from camp start catching up. They must be racing each other. Two stop to hurriedly take off their shoes, one bounces across a very precarious skinny log, 5 feet in the air above the stream, another just charges through the water with his shoes and pants getting soaked, exclaiming “I’m ahead! Ha HA HA!”

It’s too much action for me this early in the morning.

It seems like they’re having fun though!

I take my time and find Professor having his morning coffee in a beautiful field.

I’m sad about my camera lense being scratched 😦

The trail disappears in the grass save for a small stone arrow someone arranged. There are a few intersections like this every now and then.

Then the trail makes a hilarious switch back in the middle of a field instead of going straight through it.

I’m thankful for my maps!

We make it up a big climb. The racing guys from last night march ahead. Hup-hup-hup back and forth, zigzagging up the switch backs like ants in the distance. Goodbye!

I reach where they were and there’s even more climbing before us!

It’s tough hiking!

Professor asks if I still like hills.

“Yes!” I pant defensively as I struggle.

We pause to dry out our gear on a flat part of the ridge. I’m careful to use rocks on my tent so it doesn’t fly away in the wind.

The views are amazing. It’s sad seeing how expansive the burn scar is.

We continue hiking up over the pass.

I find some tree cover to go to the bathroom. As I’m pulling up my pants I feel a sharp sting on my bumb! Ouch! I look down and see there’s a wasp in my pants! Ack!!! I dance around and it stings me twice before it gets free. Well that was a first. Luckily the stings aren’t too painful and walking seems to help me forget about them.

The trail then goes down down down to a lake. We find Heather and Yeti there! We first saw them on the Spotted Bear alternate. It’s nice to see them again!

The lake is unfortunately filled with these little red creatures.

What are they???

Some kind of crustacean? I’m super curious if anyone knows! They have red bodies and a little black tail that they flex to move around, like a tiny shrimp.

They’re kinda cute 🥺

There’s no other water and it’s a long dry stretch to the next source, 11 ish miles.

I feel bad for the little red things but I filter them anyway, making sure to back flush my filter.

Heather doesn’t have a filter and uses chlorine on them and they seem to be unaffected….

Yum protein?

We’ve been spoiled with all the easy water sources these past few weeks.

The climbing continues again, up up up from the lake. And then down down down and then up up up again.

No switchbacks! It’s almost like the trail makers for this section wanted to impatiently crest every high point and plunge back to every low point. Make it like a rollercoaster! They must have said.

Phew! It’s a hard day!

I hike with Heather for a bit. It’s nice to have some female company!

I’m in the groove now and loving the climbs.

The wild flowers in this section are stunning.

Heather hangs back for Yeti. They’re camping a little sooner than I am.

The last few hills are brutal with loose, ankle twisting, baseball sized rocks. Perfect for tired feet! 🥲

I pass 3 other hikers and put on some speed. I wanna get a good tent site before it gets too crowded.

Well, it turns out the camp spot has loads of good spots, it’s a big flat saddle like valley.

I sit down for a beet and meet Speak EZ. He’s a super chill guy, and just hiked over 30 miles! With these hills?! Damn!

He finished the Appalachian Trail earlier this year and jumped onto the CDT to keep hiking. Impressive.

He still has energy and finds us a good sheltered place to set up our tents. The rest of the saddle is super exposed. I can see where the wind has just decimated some of the trees. I hope we have a calm night!

After a super tough day I still have some hiking to do. There’s no water source at this camp spot. We have to walk 0.4 miles down a steep dirt road to a spring. I message Professor with my inreach device to not worry about the water, I’ll get him some!

Speak EZ and I decide to make dinner down at the spring. He offers to help get water for Professor too. Thanks Speak EZ! We go off road and cross country to the water to try and make it shorter than 0.4 miles.

I make some ramen in the grass while ants bite me. It’s fun!

Suddenly Professor shows up. I tried to message him to not come down and we’d bring water up to him but he came down anyways. He didn’t get the message! Ack! Oh well.

We hike back up to our tents.

Professor points out that Lewis and Clark hiked over this pass on July 7th! We’re here on the anniversary! Crazy.

I’m able to face time with Doug while the sun sets before I go to bed.

My tent is on grass so I’m expecting more condensation 😦

Also. Reading the FarOut notes for what the trail looks like tomorrow and we have this to look forward to: