Friday, July 7
Start: Upper Rosary Lake
End: Dumbbell Lake
Miles: 35.7
Elevation gain/loss: 3963’/4295′
I was up at 5:10am and out by 5:35am. At Charlton Lake, one of my day’s first water sources, I fell into shin-deep water off a log when getting water for filtering. It was very annoying but my shoes and socks mostly dried within a few hours.
There were lots of lakes and ponds today, which made for very bad mosquitoes. They kept me moving steadily all day with no time to rest, aside from filtering water very quickly. As usual, it was very hot – high 90s actual and 100+ in the sun in the heat of the day. This was made worse by a large ~6mi burn section around Charlton Butte that was burned down to stumps.
Because of my rapid walking and no breaks all day, I finished up at 5:45pm by a lake. There are three other hikers here, one by himself at the very best site, and two others set up right next to each other at the next best site. I picked the remaining flat site, but had to use a lot of rocks for my tent stakes since this is mostly 0.5″ dirt on top of rock.
I then went for a quick swim, rinsed out some dirty clothes, ate more food, and then enjoyed laying down bug-free in my tent. The bugs have gotten worse as the sun descends and I’m happy to be hiding in here. My feet are throbbing but I know a night of rest will help quite a bit. My insoles are crushed and I did my miles today without my ankle braces since they were causing some substantial heel and forefoot chaffing.
I’ve been using a pumice stone to smooth the sharp edges and then duct tape to cover the edges and shredded heelcups to make them tolerable. I’ve been regretting my shoe choice for a number of days, unfortunately. If I was hiking longer, I’d buy a new pair of shoes and mail them up the trail but I don’t have quite enough time to make that feasible. I will just have to make these work.
Transcending Mountains 