Day 68

Today I woke up around 6. I barely slept last night. I couldn’t get my head to not feel like it was lower than my legs and the blood was rushing to my head. So I got out of my tent 3 times last night to shove dirt under the tent with my trowel to try to even it out. I must’ve fallen asleep around 1am.

I moved quickly to break down despite feeling exhausted. The first bit of the day was two large climbs. I went up them quickly but I felt tired. I leap frogged with Hot Springs and Obi-wan. We came to a river crossing and since my feet were wet I just walked right across in my shoes. A few hours later we came to another and by then my feet were dry so I switched to crocs. The water was cool but not too cold. I soaked and then washed my hair with Dr. Bronners and Rugy used some shampoo she had. It felt so nice to feel a little clean.

We pushed on and we’re shouting for over 20 miles. The breaks were short. The views were beautiful and the climb toward the pass was very gradual. Yet again a thunderstorm threatened us in the distance. Less than a mile from the pass I decided to go up and over right then. Rugy was eating lunch and I asked if she minded if I went ahead. Boy was that a stupid idea. I followed Hot Springs and Obi-wan up and as we hit the top of the climb where trees were scarce the lightning started cracking loud. Freezing rain and hail came down. The hail turned to marbles and I started getting welts and still have them on my legs. It hurt so bad. The trail flooded with a mix of rain and hail and my feet were soaked and freezing. I could see lightning hit in the distance, not far away, and it echoed and roared ferrociously. I was terrified. I stopped to put my rain jacket and pack cover on. I lost the other two so I ran when I got them on. I watched lightning hit the ground as close as 50 feet away. I kept running and then I saw Works Hard huddled under a patch or trees. I joined him. We set up his tarp and waited for Rugy. I felt so bad I went without her since she said she hadn’t hiked in this weather before. Shortly she showed up. We all huddled and shivered under her tent and watched lightning strike. It was so loud I plugged my ears.

Finally we decided to keep moving since we were too cold and we were becoming hypothermic. The whole trail was a river. It was flooded like crazy. We hiked on another 3 miles or so and found a good spot for the night. I thawed out in my tent the best I could. Everything I have to wear tomorrow is soaked. It’ll be fun.