Posted by 23.6 miles
The morning started well. It was all down initially on soft, pine cushioned trail in the shade of tall pines.
Things went awry when there was a wide river crossing to content with. Always keen to maintain dry feet I scouted up and down for opportunities to rock hop across. I found one but it would require committing to a long jump from one boulder to another with a submerged log jammed between the two and small waterfall spilling over it.
As I leapt across I said to myself “what are you doing?”. I made the distance and hit my target but the small ledge I was aiming for was super slippery. Both feet immediately lost purchase and I ended up in the water between the boulders clinging to the submerged log. Luckily it wasn’t deep and I was able to stand. Unfortunately during all the action the small and forceful waterfall spilled into the side pocket of my pack, lifting out and carrying away my water filter and one of my water bottles. I didn’t notice this until pulling myself up out of the water onto the boulder utilising the log for leverage and on dry ground. Noticing the bottom of my pack was wet I was more worried about loosing prescription sunglasses that were in the back pocket. Doing a quick once over my gear I noticed the contents if the left side picket gone.
A quick search of the water was useless with the churning waters revealing nothing. Luckily I carry some chemical water treatment tablets for emergencies. The down side is all that nice mountain water would taste like chlorine pool water until I could purchase a replacement filter in a few days.
I should have just got my shoes wet in the first instance, for now not only were my shoes wet but my entire bottom half from the waist down was saturated.
I continued on down hill until hitting the corner of a switch back in full sun with a little breeze. I took the opportunity to strip down, wrapping my bottom half in my rain jacket just in case any other hikers should pass by, none did, and spreading my clothes and shoes out to dry.
The remainder of the morning was super easy, on flat ground following the Green River for miles out to the Green Lakes. Once entering the lake country it was back out from underneath the shade of pines into open.
Finding shade off trail for lunch was difficult with the trail being sidecut into a sloping hill. I eventually found a suitable tree right on trail leaving just enough room for others to pass by. Only a couple of dat hikers came through.
Early afternoon I entered real bear country. There was a one mile stretch that showed signs every few hundred feet. I was vigilant in coming into any blind corner or sections of track with overgrown vegetation.
It was another very hot and humid day. This has been the pattern for over a week now and towards the end of the day I was struggling. What should have been a fairly straightforward, short and sharp hill climb to Gunsight Pass had me panting my way up, stopping for frequent breaks.
My shirt was saturated with sweat in the humidity and looking pretty shabby.
At top of the pass with less than a mile to go I decided to stop a cook dinner hoping for a bit of breeze to call me down and keep the mozzies at bay. A slight wind blew onto my damp shirt providing a cooling effect but it wasn’t strong enough to do anything about those annoying little blood suckers with syringes for mouth pieces.
It was a short 15 minute walk into camp from the pass which was right next to a stream. In an attempt to rinse out some of the sweat from my shirt and co down myself. I stripped it off and jumped into the stream. The water temperature was perfect and I would have soaked for a good while if it wasn’t for those damn mosquitoes and now small black sand flies to boot. They swarmed. All I could manage was a quick splash down of my body and quick rinse of my shirt. It is plenty warm enough that it will be dry by sunset.
It was impossible to be anywhere else than in my tent surrounded by bug netting. Every time I ventured in or out a bunch of bugs would get in and I’d spend the next few minutes on a search and destroy mission to clear the tent.
Mick Beckers 