June 22 - The Bob was blurring together. So much of the same. So much effort to make my legs move. My feet had developed new blisters and were having trouble readjusting to trail and perhaps to my new shoes, Merrills. Lots of river crossings, overgrown plants, nobody around, repetition. 29.4 miles today. Hot miles. Gatorade powder became something delicious after years of being something I would cringe at. That happens a lot out here. The things I enjoy eating and drinking would have been unthinkable additions to my diet not a few months before.
Today was an almost dry day for our feet, finally! Dry feet are kind of a big deal out here. Constant wetness and heat leads to increased bacterial growth, blisters, athletes foot, and stank! Guy was pretty adamant about getting in 30 miles today so we pushed later into the night, getting to a great camping spot around 10pm where we saw 3 tents on top of a hill. We tried to be quiet as we set up on another hill not too far away when we heard a sneeze. I yelled "Bless you!" and a head popped out. It was Papi Chulo, Beads, and Kramers! Yay! People! We had caught up to them!
June 23 - We had finally reached the Divide. Exposed ridges, mountaintops, lots of elevation gains and losses. Lots of amazing, expansive views. Over and over again, which slowed us all down. 21.5 miles today. It is also my birthday. I turned 27. Our initial goal was to get into Lincoln for my birthday, but that became an unreasonable expectation clearly after a while. It was a hard day. But a rewarding one too. Beads had just had her birthday and was carrying an extra balloon that she blew up and wrote "Happy Birthday" on for me. I tied it to my pack, feeling loved and appreciated! Kramers broke out in the Happy Birthday song continuously throughout the day, which always made me laugh.
(Birthday love!)
Today was an almost dry day for our feet, finally! Dry feet are kind of a big deal out here. Constant wetness and heat leads to increased bacterial growth, blisters, athletes foot, and stank! Guy was pretty adamant about getting in 30 miles today so we pushed later into the night, getting to a great camping spot around 10pm where we saw 3 tents on top of a hill. We tried to be quiet as we set up on another hill not too far away when we heard a sneeze. I yelled "Bless you!" and a head popped out. It was Papi Chulo, Beads, and Kramers! Yay! People! We had caught up to them!
June 23 - We had finally reached the Divide. Exposed ridges, mountaintops, lots of elevation gains and losses. Lots of amazing, expansive views. Over and over again, which slowed us all down. 21.5 miles today. It is also my birthday. I turned 27. Our initial goal was to get into Lincoln for my birthday, but that became an unreasonable expectation clearly after a while. It was a hard day. But a rewarding one too. Beads had just had her birthday and was carrying an extra balloon that she blew up and wrote "Happy Birthday" on for me. I tied it to my pack, feeling loved and appreciated! Kramers broke out in the Happy Birthday song continuously throughout the day, which always made me laugh.
Eventually the balloon popped on my ice ax, and we caught up to Mehap and Apache at the end of the day. We also finally ran into Ratna and Wide Angle, who had also ridden with us in the van. They had gotten of in Butte and were going to hike north to Glacier, so we had been looking forward to seeing them as we hiked south. They were going to then hitch south to Chama I believe and hike north from there so we'd run into them again later! I was really happy to see them on my birthday and it was so nice to be around other people again.
We all camped up high on a pass and watched the sun set and rise from the perfect vantage point.
June 24 - I had reached out to Frodo who was going to be in Lincoln and was picking up hikers and doing some trail magic since she and Scout had just gotten back from Alaska. I over estimated hoe quickly we could move with all o this elevation, so she was at the pass petty early. Oops! We ended up getting to her around 2PM vs the 9:30AM I had estimated. Talk about bad math.
As we descended toward the pass she was waiting with a cooler of cold drinks, fresh cherries, and snap peas! There was a small group of us all in Lincoln, Me, Guy, Beads, Kramers, and Papi along with Carrot Quinn, Spark, Apache, and Mehap. We all went out for dinner to celebrate the 3 birthdays that had occurred while in the Bob!
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