Day 11
Heading out of camp 9 AM
This morning we’re continuing along the creek that we slept by last night.
Wow, the river is beautiful. The trail zigzags across multiple times and keeping our feet dry is a challenge. I developed my first blister a few days ago after getting my feet wet at scissors crossing and hiking on it while the blisters are still slowing healing is a reminder to keep my feet as dry as possible… Well after the third Crossing my feet are Wet! Darn!
The power of nature is evident as I see this oak, growing up between the cracks of this giant rock formation.
We’ve left the river and ascended up into the hills above. Ryan is in the upper right portion of this shot.
Off in the distance I can look across at the meadow we came through yesterday
Lesson in checking camp before you leave in the morning. We came across a lone ice ax laying on the ground at a campsite spot. We picked it up and brought it with us. About a mile down the trail we bumped into a hiker named “wrong way” coming back down trail. It was his. We returned it to him he was grateful and turned around to hike with us for a while. His name suits him.
For our next water fill we had to hike .2 miles down hill to access water. It’s a beautiful location but it’s .2 miles back up hill to the Trail.
Lunch today is bean and cheese burritos. as we were packing up to get back on trail Beth and “ziggy” approached. They were at our campsite last night. We had only met ziggy when we got in as Beth had gone to her tent. Ziggy has incredible eyes and carries her own food. Yes, Ziggy is a dog.
Today we just keep climbing up up up. In fact, we have climbed high enough that we’re encountering small patches of snow along the trail again
And God said, I think I’ll put this rock right here, and it was good
Filling up water again for the rest of today’s hike. We have 3 1/2 miles to go today. There is some question if there is water available at our destination so we’re taking a little bit extra.
We took the side trail to Mike’s place. He is an iconic trail angel who offers his property for camping often times he is here with food, not today 😢.
The place is empty. This is a house up in the middle of nowhere in the mountains and while it appears fairly rundown, he truly has it set up hikers. He does have some interesting things around the property, but it is a good place to camp and that is what we are doing.. shortly after arrival we had about eight other hikers coming to Mike’s place to set up camp as well.
Total miles today 12.2 total trail Miles 127.3
