A Day Before I Start 7

Day -1: 26 miles

Started the day off with a chilling sunrise. It was kind of an odd scene. The lookout point was very close to a parking lot so it’s a common spot for locals so there was a lot of people there, but nobody was talking. It was silent. People just enjoying the natural beauty.

Last night was frigid and the morning was cold. Not sure how cold it was last night but it was below 15 with the wind chill most of the morning. Just something I gotta get used to🙃 Thankfully it did warm up and I took my jacket off for the first time in a week

Today was a very dry stretch of trail. There were a lot of seasonal sources but it’s winter and it hasn’t rained in a week. I had to take a mile detour off trail to get any water at all today and only drank 3 liters. Don’t need a ton in winter though.

Got a history lesson from an older fellow about how a zinc mine killed blue mountain and life is just now starting to come back to it. This guy was an encyclopedia of knowledge for the local area and trail.

I walked on snowy and icy rocks for a majority of the day which really slowed me down, especially at night with a dimming headlamp cause I wanted to get all the juice out of the batteries. My cheapskate nature won’t even escape me out here.

Tomorrow will be a short day of hiking and a long day of driving.