Day started with a long climb out of the river valley. It was very well graded so it was not very steep, but it was long…pretty much a straight 3000′ climb.
Had some nice views towards the top, but we were mostly in shade for the majority of the walk during the first half of the day. The shade has been welcome….I have a couple light sunburns, and its nice to give those spots a break.
Popped out on a road that went into Bucks Lake resort area around lunch time and we decided to head in and have lunch and a beer at the resort. Very glad we did. The resort reminded me a lot of the bar/restaurants that are on lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin. There were a lot of hikers there. The three caballeros, cougar, data, mark trail, moonwalker, chelsea, calf and us four. We had some great food…salad, pizza and pie, and some good beer. They had 20 beers on tap, with most of them being craft beers. They had a shot-ski as well, so the four of us did a shot of fireball whisky for fun. After we were all finished eating, we got a lift back up to the trail….all 13 of us in one pickup! 11 in the back…it was pretty excellent…definitely feels like freedom when getting a hitch riding in the back of a pickup.
The last 11 or so miles went quickly…more good views from the mountain before we descended a little to our campsite.
Daily Distance: 26
Trip Distance: 1,260.6
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