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| Not our usual snow capped mountain hikes, but this hike is melted out and assessable! The envronment is all lumpy rock formations. A very different kind of scenery. |
Today's trail is up and down. We gained and lost elevation all day. Pat's plantar fascitis has flared up. To help her out she is able to soak her feet in the streams we cross. We were able to stop and soak three times. At one of the creek crossings, we were all able to have a foot ice bath as the crossing had two possible ways to cross. one choice was to walk across a round log suspended four feet above the water line and hang onto a loose rope for balance. The second pathway was to remove your hiking boots, put on your water shoes and walk through the knee-deep stream. While we were changing into our other shoes a group came from the opposite direction. They decided to take the first route... the first person across got baptized. It made a pretty big splash. A lady about my age fell pack first off of the log into the water. What we heard was a yelp and big splash. The lady said she was alright, but I can't imagine that falling off of a four-foot high log pack first felt very good...And she was talking a mile a minute so she must have some good adrenaline going. The other three people she was hiking with crossed without a baptism.
After fording the creek, I had to put all new moleskin on while Pat and Kathi reviewed the map and baptizing log. We decided we were close to an upcoming water source and possible good location for your second night of camping.
We hiked around 8 miles today. Guessing the exact mileage on the map is impossible as all of the switchbacks are not taken into consideration. We call our second camp "penny's swamp". I learned a good lesson about locating a good place to do your business in the outback. Consider all of the bends and twists in the trail before pulling your pants down. I managed to hike way back off of our campsite, which was really only 7 feet from the trail. I had the opportunity to have four hikers walk past. I yanked my pants up pretty quick when I realized my error! Lesson learned! Our second night at camp our dinner was interrupted by a late afternoon/evening shower.
This might be a good time to talk about Pat's dinner. Last night she was overzealous with her stove top stuffing. She meant to just make some of it but instead ended up pouring the whole packet into the water. She could not eat the four servings it made. As Pat was scooping all of the leftovers into a ziplock the gain in weight for her pack was very apparent. She had to carry around the extra weight of the made meal. Tonight for supper it is some more stuffing to help Pat decrease the weight of her pack. Kathi and I had Jamaican jerk beans and rice. Spicy and tasty! We are trying to eat all of our heavier meals first. We have all of the weights written on the sucker bags that we have packed into our bear cans.
Tonight we had some brief showers move in right around supper time. We had a meal that we were not able to practice the art of getting everything in order to sit down and cook dinner without getting up. I can tell we are a bit more prepared for dinner, but sitting down was a pretty wet choice. So we stood around and chatted about trips, hikes, and bucket lists. So much to do, so little time. I better retire from teaching if I am going to get that bucket list taken care of!
Hmmmm, that sounds perfect!
Eariler to bed tonight due to the rain. We did a bit of reading before falling to sleep.
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