CDT Day 61 – Summit Lake

Date: 8/21/20

Daily Miles: 16

Total Miles: 1081

We had a pretty slow morning today. We didn’t get up until 6:30am, which is late for us on trail. Then we took several breaks within the first few hours. And we stopped to chat with another hiker. Needless to say, we blew our time for “reading hour” in the morning. So, the rest of the day was just walking.

Today was just as smokey as yesterday…possibly even a bit worse. We could smell the smoke today. It felt like we could only make out the silhouette of some of the mountains today.

Even with the smokey sky, the trail today was spectacular. The landscape was reminiscent of the Sierra Mountains, with the granite peaks and the alpine lakes surrounded by rocks. We probably passed by more than 20 lakes of different sizes. It seemed like every turn in the trail opened up more views that were beautiful. Sometimes we just had to stop and completely look around to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

This morning the trail was very quiet and we only saw a few people. We thought it was pretty strange, since we had seen so many people yesterday. But, after lunch we started to see a lot more people. And by the time we got to our side trail which we are taking into Pinedale, it seemed like the trail had turned into a highway. Granted, it is Friday evening, but it was hard to even be able to pee on the trail this afternoon, because there was always someone coming up the trail.

We are looking forward to getting into town tomorrow and eating a lot of food. Our appetites have really increased lately and we seem to always feel hungry. We’re going to be taking a rest day in town, which we are looking forward to.

As we lay in our hammocks, we can hear a solo hiker coming along the the trail saying “Hey Bear” over and over to alert any bears in the area. It makes us chuckle as we think of ourselves a few days ago saying “Klaus Meiner” over and over in a German accent to alert any bears. The name probably doesn’t mean anything to anyone unless they are a fan of the band, The Scorpions, or have recently listened to the podcast, Wind of Change. Yep, it’s completely random, but makes us smile.