7/29/21
Daily Miles: 17
2021 CDT Total Miles: 93
Overall CDT Total Miles: 2163
Beardoh and SweetPea had a good night of sleep, but Mace unfortunately had a mostly sleepless night. He has been dealing with some low energy because he hasn’t been eating much…just the thought of food makes him nauseous. No sleep and not eating much isn’t a very good combination. Perhaps the elevation is still bothering him. Hopefully he’ll be feeling better soon.
Shortly after leaving camp, we came up on an elk. We seemed to surprise it, because we got pretty close before it took off. It only went a little down the trail and then ran again as we got close a second time.
The trail felt pretty easy today…mostly a mix of dirt roads and snow mobile trails. In the early afternoon, the landscape seemed to change with giant boulders dotting the mountainside. It was a different look than the terrain we have been seeing.
In the early afternoon, we walked a mile off trail to the seasonal cabin of a trail angel who let us drop off a resupply box. This was really helpful so that we didn’t have to start the trail with seven days of food in our packs. We were able to break it up into a five day carry and a two day carry. We walked to his cabin, grabbed our box of food and headed back to the trail.
As we were walking back to the trail, we could hear thunder and started to feel some sprinkles. It kept sprinkling and the wind started to pick up. We had been planning to camp at a spot a few miles up where the trees stopped and a flat plain started. We decided it might be better to camp in an area with more trees for protection if a storm was going to be coming through. So, we’re decided to stop 1.5 miles early.
Since the walking had been easy today, we ended up setting up camp at 4:00pm…super early. It was starting to rain as we set up our tarps, but by the time we were totally set up, the skies were starting to clear. It turned into a beautiful afternoon, so we just accepted that we were getting some extra relaxation time.
That’s awesome you were able to reduce your 7 day carry. I hope Mace’s sleep has improved!
Yeah, being able to pick up food at Joel’s made this stretch much more manageable. When we looked at it with you guys, we were considering 7 days at 24 miles per day. Definitely not the pace we wanted to start at!