Miles Hiked 357.9
Elevation 10,919 feet
Miles Hiked Today 12.5
The infamous “4 AM” crew were gone when I got up. This hiker group (4 of them) mainly hike in the early morning hours to avoid storms later in the day. It was this group that gave me some of their water yesterday, which saved me a mile round trip to a source.
I packed up and before leaving at about 7:30, I talked with Eric, another hiker who was camped nearby. Eric is somewhere in his 40’s. His pack weighs nearly 50 pounds! Way too much. He is only hiking about seven to ten miles per day.
Today’s hike includes elevation gains of over 3,000 feet. It also crosses Snow Mesa, which is a rather long, flat ridge walk. Snow Mesa averages just under 12,500 feet in elevation and provides great views of the surrounding mountains.
Once again I got caught in a hail storm and this one was pretty bad. I’m on the mountain ridge above 12,000 feet when it started. At that altitude there are no trees. The hail was the largest I’ve seen so far, about a half inch in diameter. The wind was blowing so hard that the hail was hurting my legs. I squatted down and turned my back to the wind. Now the hail was only hitting my head and backpack. After about 10 minutes the storm let up, and I continued.
Mid afternoon the trail started to descend. In the last day I managed to get a blister on the bottom of my right foot to match the one on my left foot. You would think after three and one-half weeks, I would be immune to blisters but not so. The descent didn’t go very fast thanks to the blister.
I reached the trailhead into Lake City by 5 PM and started to look for a campsite when I came upon Joey. He’s the hiker I met a few days ago who told me there was no place to stay in Lake City. He showed me where he setup his tent and I setup mine nearby.
Tomorrow – Lake City!
