Day 67

We woke this morning at 6 to very wet tents and sleeping bags. We broke down slow so we could dry our stuff. Lots of deer ran around camp. I sat and made coffee and had breakfast. We left around 8:30 because the sun took so long to hit us in the valley. The mosquitos were immediately horrible. When I stopped to pee I had to alternate lifting a leg so I could keep them off me. I wore a headnet and drenched myself in deet. That’s never fun.

The climbs weren’t all that hard to start the day but for some reason I was exhausted. Then I became ravenous. I think my hiker hunger has come back since it went away when I left the trail. I had food and pushed up over Benson Pass. Still I felt exhausted even though I’d taken an energy gel to help me. Over the pass was beautiful. Huge granite peaks, meadows with rivers, lakes dotted about. The climb down was very steep and then we had a nice relatively flat section followed by a very hard and short climb up. We wanted to rush because we could see a storm coming. Sure enough it started raining. We took a break under a tree that provided some rain coverage. I was still exhausted. I took another energy gel and went up again.

We were headed to another pass. The climb felt gradual and the rain kept me cool. Soon thunder was cracking above me as I ascended. I didn’t really love the idea of going over a treeless pass in a thunder storm. I got almost to the top of the pass and there was a patch of trees. I sat and waited. I was glad I did. The lighting and thunder became extremely intense. Echoing and cracking so loud. I could even see the lightning what looked to be close by. Arugula and a gentlemen whose name escapes me came and sat to wait too. Finally it cleared and we pushed the remaining and grueling 4.5 miles to camp. The moment I put my pack down at camp I was swarmed with dozens of mosquitos. I danced to get my mosquito net pants on and got water, set up my tent, got in, and made dinner. The sky opened up again and for the first time on this trip it rained while I was in my tent. It was relaxing and it was so nice to be dry inside.