We woke up this morning with one of the greatest views to date. We all cowboy camped next to the Whitewater River and enjoyed fresh cold water to wake up to. Spoons and I had a slow morning and got out on the trail around 6:45. We met Kindness and his friend this morning and played leap frog with them all day.

Once we got past the initial valley, there was no trail. It was all washed away. We walked 12 slow miles through ankle twisting rocks followed by the softest sand uphill for several thousand feet up. It was grueling work but the entire time we had water running through our path. It offered relief in the hot sun but also added an additional challenge as we had to cross the creek more than 20 times. It was tough work but we were able to enjoy the view from the valley floor several times as we stopped under the few places of shade. This continued for most of the day until we managed to get back on trail for an immediate climb up to around 8,000 ft. We noticed the trail ahead had a possible bypass so Spoons, Tiber, and I attempted the cut through. It was directly up the side up a mountain and we soon realized it was more bushwhacking than anything. We thought we noticed footprints but they were just anima tracks. What we thought would be the end of the climb soon became another false summit. We ended up having to cowboy camp at a flat part of the ridge line. We’ll have to save the rest for tomorrow.

We’re cowboy camped next to the trail as we got too tired and it began to get dark. A little bit of a shorter post today as I’m ready to get to bed.

Happy sleep…