Day 54 – 6 Miles (811 miles from Mexico)

It’s almost 8am and I’m still in my sleeping bag. That’s right baby! Lazy day!

Well, I do have several thousand feet to climb today to reach treeline just below the divide near Carson Pass, but still, in miles it will be a short day, so why not linger over coffee and oatmeal, read a bit of my Harpers Magazine, and blog?

Right now I am sitting below a little blue window of sky, but the clouds around me are heavy and thick with rain…and snow. The peaks around me show some new white stuff crowning their tops, which will probably make for better skiing tomorrow and the next day. It’s strange to be in the middle of a section and be making such short miles, but as I mentioned, being caught above treeline in a storm is the worst place for me. I had that happen not far from here on the Colorado Trail in 2007. I camped above treeline near Stony Pass and was woken in the middle of the night by a terrifying lightening storm with nowhere to hide. That is not going to happen again, so I relax, catch up on sleep and fiddle around in my tarp.

Note to self: lots more packrafting opportunities up this way, we’ll never run out of rivers, creeks, and lakes to explore…

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2pm – I’ve been in my tarp for 3 hours. Just as I had made my way up the Lost Creek Trail to a junction where I could choose between hiking up to Heart Lake or further up the canyon to the last few trees, it started to rain and I realized with only a few more miles at best it would be a good idea to take an early lunch.

I had just started to set up my tarp when it started raining harder, hailing, and the lightening started up. It was close again, and I crouched in my tarp pleading with the lightening to leave me alone.

Ahh, now three hours later it hasn’t stopped raining, and I think I could stay here. I don’t have a ton of miles to do tomorrow, and I should be able to knock them out. I didn’t want to stop this early…but where is there to go really? I’ll do some more reading, napping, eating all my good snacks…

Not the most exciting day ever but then again the thunder storms keep rolling in.