20ish miles

Woke up early about 5:15ish so that we could pack our things and be ready for the sunrise at 5:55 am. Usually I’m against setting alarms on trail and getting up early in general but man was it worth it. We had a spectacular view of the sunrise with awesome coloring and a smoky haze layered over the mountain ridges in the distance.

The day continues with long continuous climbs up and down. We are going over what’s called The Three Ridges today. It’s exactly what it sound like. We go up and over three ridges back to back.

I did encounter my first rattlesnake today near the top of one of the ridges. I came about 3 feet from stepping on this huge timber rattlesnake. He didn’t even rattle and would absolutely not get out of my way. I stepped back, threw rocks and sticks at him and he just wouldn’t budge. Finally Crazy Eyes came up and extended his trekking pole to the farthest that it would reach and physically pushed him off trail. Only then did it rattle at us. It had to be almost 3 feet long and about as think as a baseball bat. He had 12 notches on his rattle too.

Anyways the day dragged on and on going up and down these climbs. It felt like hours each way. Today was one of those days where the trail was kind of disheartening. I really didn’t feel like hiking and at one point just sat on a log before the final climb of the day. Luckily Two Tone came by and forced me up and going otherwise I may have just made camp right there.