Today was like doing twenty miles in Maine. Rough trail. One place where the trail had collapsed but there was a tree branch.
Almost an inch across. Covered in thorns. I eventually got them out of my hand.
So many giant blowdowns.
So many incredible views, streams running straight out of glaciers. Over five thousand feet of ascent. Over six thousand of descent.
Where we are camping there are nine tents with more setting up. We are at the edge and got here first, had dinner (beef jerky and mashed potatoes) with craisens for desert.
Tried “freezer bag” cooking but used one of the backpacker pantry meal envelopes to do it.
Definitely a success. White noise from the glacier melt stream (a big one) is making life pleasant.
8:00 pm and it is dark out. The valley really cuts out the sunlight.
It rained a lot last night. Weather report was off. We were prepared. Dry and warm. Wiped off the condensation with my wash cloth and got into rain gear.
So much water on the trail. So very glad of good rain pants. Only thing I needed to dry out was the tent which took about five minutes. Caught a short nap while drying and was reinvigorated.
For a really rough trail day we had a strong hike.