Day 187

Day 187 (pct 77): 31 miles

The day started off slow. The mosquitoes were really bad for the first 15 or so miles. They were annoying but a couple I met asked me if it was the worst I’ve seen and comparatively, it wasn’t close to Oregon. There was a lot of climbing up and down all day but in the afternoon I finally got up out of the trees with some wind and the skeeters disappeared.

I got to Cispus pass in the late afternoon and hammer still hadn’t caught me. He usually sleeps in a little longer and catches up with me since he’s faster. But today was the one day I actually wanted him to catch me as some bad possible cause I knew once we got up really high in the Goat Rocks Wilderness it would be beautiful and I wanted some damn pictures. After that pass, there was a short flat stretch where I was moving a little slower and thankfully he caught up right as were were about to begin the final ascent up to knife’s edge.

Knife’s edge is a part of the trail that basically rides a skinny ridge for a while and it was majestic. It was really steep short you and downs on the ridge and walking in loose shale rock but even though it was slow going, it was one of my favorite parts of the trail so far.

Beauty in every direction as far as the eye can see, enhanced by the thought that if you fall on either side you’re gonna be tumbling for a while. Thankfully there was not really any snow on the trail which is unusual for this time of the year. I guess one good thing came out of the heat wave. If there was a lot of snow still, today would’ve been much more dangerous and slower going.

I saw a massive elk today. Its antlers were at least 5 feet long and it was stunning. It surprised me too. I was just waking along singing to myself and then it just took off about 10 feet from me on my right running to my left.

There was also a marmot that modeled for hammer and me. We were walking by and taking pictures and he hopped up on a rock and posed for the camera.

Hammer just used his phone flashlight to look for his phone. It’s been a good day

SOTD: are we still friends-Tyler the Creator