Saturday, October 7, 2023
Miles: 37.28
Elevation gain/loss: 4429’/2142′
After restless sleep, I was up at 4:45am and hiking by 5:10am. I kept a steady pace all day, and while the water sources were more spread out, they were all of decent quality. The temperature was relatively cool as well, with some frost on plants first thing in the morning in the colder pockets. I took to calling these spots ‘cold sinks.’ I’m not sure what they’re actually called, but it was curious to find that higher points were warmer than lower spots.
Part of my day involved a long walk on double track/a dirt ATV road; it was in good shape and had a decent grade, so I was able to make good time and feel relaxed while doing so. The aspen trees were popping – golden yellow and practically glowing. Over the course of the day, I met Twitchy, Headlight, Spirit Kick, Peter Pan, and Bigfoot. I pushed on after the last water source, hoping to find camping in the next few miles as the sun set, but there weren’t any established sites and nothing looked flat so I kept going. I ended up hiking until 7:45pm, where there was a flat established site near a trailhead.
I set up my tarp (mainly for the visibility so people didn’t accidently camp on top of me) and was glad I did when a car rolled in at 2am; they started to look for a camping spot, saw my tarp, got back in the car, and drove down the road to find another spot. I slept fairly well, with my campsite being in a warm spot with very little wind.
Transcending Mountains 