Monday, August 31
It rained all night last night. Luckily, it stopped around 4-5am. We decided to get up early and be on trail around 6am. We had a big 4000ft climb to get up to 12000ft. It was very exposed at the top and we didn't want any thunderstorm catching us at the summit.
The brush around the trail was wet and soaked our feet pretty quickly. Nothing like 6am soaked feet....
The climb wasn't too bad. The last mile was very steep though.
Once we started the descent, Heather and I got to talking about how nice it would be to get to Steamboat Springs by the end of the day. Mostly because we were wet and freezing. It would make it a 38 mile day. We decided to just keep moving and see how close we get.
The area we were hiking in was beautiful. Really one of the nicest areas of the trail so far.
We were in the MT Zirkel wilderness for the first 12 miles or so and then turned on to an ATV trail for a while.
Elk bow hunting season just started the other day, so we have seen a ton of hunter camps and hunters. We chatted with a group of 3 that were very nice.
By lunchtime we had about 20 miles in. We were getting tired so I wasn't super optimistic that we would make it. But we just kept hiking.
Around 4 I was thinking we should just stop, and camp for the night. My feet were killing me and we still had 12 miles to go. But we kept moving.
By 6pm we were 32 miles in and it was mostly downhill to the road. We were going for it. Somehow, on the downhills, we ran or jogged. Then walked the flats and hills.
About 7:30 we made it to the road. 38 miles! Biggest day of the trip!
It was getting dark fast but we got a ride into town and checked into our hotel.
That's intense! Kudos!
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