9.13.18. 14.7 miles.

I didn’t sleep too well last night, and as frequently happens in town, needed to get up to go to the bathroom a few times in the night. I ended up getting out of bed at 7:30 after having got at least an hour of sleep right before then. I started getting my stuff packed and Jazmin woke up around 8. We went and got breakfast next door once all of my things were in my pack. Unfortunately, Jazmin got a phone call halfway thru from her roommate wondering where she was bc she was supposed to meet Comcast at her place! So she had to leave after breakfast to try to meet them, and couldn’t hike out with me. It was still really great to see her and spend time with her! She was such an angel and bought my breakfast as well. Thank you Jazmin!

I was going to hike out after she left, but it started raining pretty hard, so I went back to the room and scheduled blog posts and laid down on the bed, watching the weather outside. Finally, at 11 when I needed to check out, I hiked out. It was raining, but I knew it would rain on and off all day so there was no point in delaying any longer.

The climb out was tough. Very steep, wet, rocky, and rooty. The major climb was almost 3,000 ft in 6 miles. The trail undulated for a bit once it topped out. I got some water from a lake at the top just after hitting 2,400 miles! I pulled out the pizza I packed out and ate that as I walked. It was too cold to stop to eat lunch.

It rained on and off all day, with a ton of fog that would sometimes clear to reveal the beautiful views. Towards the end of the day was best, I actually got to see a little bit on sunset! The afternoon had steep climbs up very rocky trail. I complain about rocky trail a lot, but so does everyone else out here. It’s literally the worst kind of trail. Every step has to be so intentional, especially going downhill. And there was so much of that today. I couldn’t believe I only hiked a little under 15 miles today. It felt like so much more work.

I got to camp to see Estes there, so I went and set up next to him and we chatted until it was time to go to sleep. He’s a real nice guy, and I’m happy we keep leapfrogging!