9.14.18. 26.8 miles.

Last night was pretty cold. I slept with my balaclava and liner gloves on the whole night! I didn’t hear much rain; maybe a small shower every so often. My tent was wet in the morning, so it rained at some point!

I got going pretty quickly after my alarm went off. I could hear Estes moving around so decided to get ready. I actually beat him though, even though I thought he’d be gone by the time I got out of my tent! It was cold in the morning, but not windy or rainy, so I left all my rain gear off, but put my thermal top on. The views were stunning right away. I had such a beautiful view of Spectacle Lake with the mountains in the back. So amazing! The mountains here are so imposing.

After a small, short uphill, I had a very long downhill to a few creeks, and then a long uphill right after that. I took a lunch at the top of the climb, where I was able to find a nice big rock and lay out my tent and quilt to dry. It was so nice sitting in the sun. After taking about an hour for lunch, I walked a short distance to a tarn to get some water, and then continued along, going into another long descent to the Waptus River. The views were so stunning. I was able to identify Mount Stuart in the Enchantments from the trail, and there were so many other beautiful craggy peaks. I also couldn’t believe how lucky I was with the weather. No rain today!

Mt. Stuart in the Enchantments in the distance

I got down to the river and checked guthooks. I still needed to hike 6 miles to get to the camp I wanted, and it was almost 5. I pretty much booked it as much as I could considering it was all uphill. It’s hard on a day like today where your body (knees) get too used to one motion: downhill or uphill. So when the opposite starts up again, I feel pretty creaky. I prefer days that are more rollercoastery bc it’s more varied. During my hike to camp, I saw a huge elk bull run across the trail! I was stunned. Usually it’s deer, and I’m still startled when they run across the trail, so a huge elk was a little more startling. They move fast though, and run/hop the same as deer.

fall colors are popping up all over the trail

I got to camp a little after 7:15. I can already tell it’s starting to get dark even earlier. I needed my headlamp at 8 pm just to do things in my tent.