June 9th
Cataract Lake(814.5)-Spring Creek Pass(Lake City)(837.5)
23mi
We knew we were 23mi from the pass into town and we were motivated this morning. The alarm was set for 4:45am and we were hiking at our earliest time so far at 5:35am. We met Burrito last night as we were camped next to each other and she asked us to wake her up too. She was going to take two days to do the 23mi and made the decision to push to town today. It was great to hike with Burrito today and she made good company. She lives in this area and will be taking some days off, so maybe we will cross paths again up trail. Here we all are together.
 |
|
| Silly Chili, Burrito, Rockin’, Me |
Today had some pretty spectacular wide open views. It was a really great day of hiking and we had a couple of good climbs. Here is Rockin’ as she hiked up towards our highest point so far. I know I have few pictures of myself, so here is another reminder that Rockin’ has a blog and is posting some great pictures of me that she has been taking. Her blog is www.ladyonarock.wordpress.com
Unfortunately, my thigh muscle is still not doing great. It is slightly improved and I think it will eventually work itself out. I am trying not to put my full weight on it on the downhills which is when it is the most painful. Of course, today had a ton of downhill the second half of the day as we descended down to the pass and I hobbled gracefully the whole way down. I was able to ice it and get in the hot tub to heat it tonight and I’m hoping that helps. I’m getting closer to feeling like myself again, so that’s good! Here is the view looking down at the pass we eventually dropped down to.
The trail today was wide open and felt really different than what we’ve been in lately. The end of the day even had hiking that was reminiscent of New Mexico with cairns across a field. This field was really annoying walking with my hurt leg as it was just a few miles of a rocky uneven field from cairn to cairn.
When we got to the pass, we had arrange for Beacon to drive us into town. He is so awesome! Just as we arrived, so did much of the rest of the crew and even Mark showed up. It is so funny how we all tend to arrive about the same town. We had heard great things about the hostel in town, but there were a lot of hikers there already. I got to see No Amp and Cherry Picker who I knew from PCT 2011, and I finally got to meet Bone Lady and Cheese who I’ve been just behind for awhile now.
With the hostel pretty full and tight in space, we all ended up spreading out to find a good motel to stay in. The three of us ended up choosing the more pricey Matterhorn Motel(and Mark is here too) which is totally worth it! It has great accommodations and I have a big comfy queen bed all to myself! It’s nice to be in a motel room with three people as opposed to larger 4-6 sized group I’ve been experiencing. Much more relaxing! There is a hot tub here and we relaxed in there tonight too. I have been wiped out the last week and a half and have fallen behind on my emailing, so I am sorry if I haven’t replied to some of your comments or emails. I really am exhausted and looking forward to the zero day we have planned for a week from now. That is when I plan to catch up on all my correspondence. It is 12:30am right now and I’ve been up since 4:45am…Rockin’ is right next to me on her iPhone doing the same thing. Silly Chili just laid down and is getting up early to get to a cafe to do some work with the two online college courses he’s taking right now. The three of us are very much looking forward to a zero next weekend!
