Day 22, 18.9 miles!

Ohhhhh we got just a weeeee bit high today! What a beautifully rugged day. Full of friends and thunderstorm racing! Let’s get into it! Papa John was super cool and took us 17 miles back to the trailhead so that we could get an early 7:30 start! The drive up was GORGEOUS!! Yesterday on the way down was a foggy window with 5 ripe hikers in a van in a thunderstorm! Shotgun in the truck while Cheese cuddled Scooby was much better! 

Truck view, driver window, across Papa John, with the window down. That’s some iPhone skills 😂 

Papa John, Cheeseburgler, and Scooby! (Intensely honing in on another animal nearby) 

We started with a few miles of this flooded muddy road, which was actually really hard to navigate without slipping, but at times was very speedy! Soon the three musketeers Digs, Landslide, and Big Pig caught up to us! They had with them Splat.

Big Pig, Landslide and Cheese

Digs

Love this pic of Cheese and Landslide 

It was super great having other people around our age hiking with us today! I talked to Digs all about snowboarding and picked his brain about writing articles and reviews for outdoor gear companies. He’s also a musician! Landslide is from Corvallis living in Portland, OR and we talked all about Mt. Hood, our favorite parts about Oregon, and all other PNW related topics! I got her contact info so Claire and I can go snowboarding and skiing with her and her partner Simon some day!

Cheese and I with the Twinsie poles 

Cheeseburgler and I fell behind the others and stopped at a tree for a small break. I told him how thankful I was to be hiking with him, and he told me the same. We had a real bromance moment and hugged it out, and then all of a sudden Digs popped out from behind the tree! “I’m over here taking a **** and I have to listen to you two sappy guys?!”  He had heard everything from 20 feet away and we all were laughing so hard for miles!! 

Digs stretching it out with a view

It was raining as we climbed and climbed and climbed. Every time we came up over a peak, the weather looked ok ahead although sometimes a little scary. We were in a very exposed zone but lightning risk seemed minimal. We watched as a red hop in the distance just got pummeled by storms and lightning. It was wild! 

We saw another hiker headed the same way in a saddle between high points. Her name was Susan and she was a little worried about the weather. She couldn’t decided if she should go further and turn back. We are not professionals by any means but by monitoring the patterns and watching the movement of this bad weather, us three boys thought it safest to go up and over the high point and descend quickly to tree line in the other side. Susan put trust in our plan and trodded along as well.

 

Soon after that it started coming down HEAVY!! The wind picked up but we were only 1 mile from the top and we knew we’d be fine! Susan expected us to all ditch her with our faster pace but I told her no one gets left behind! I would walk a distance ahead and take breaks to drink water, adjust my poles, etc, to make sure she was within sight but didn’t feel like I was slowing down for her! 

Cruisin’ Susan! 

Cheeseburger could tell what I was doing and he slowed it down too, which he totally didn’t have to. As he crested the high point the weather got real bad and he booked ahead a bit to start the descent! I waited for Susan. I knew how scary it is to hike alone in unfamiliar high altitude terrain in a thunderstorm, and I was determined to at least start the descent with her! 

Cheeseburgler came BACK UP the trail to the high point to us! 

I can’t quite explain how awesome it is to be hiking with such a good dude. We are for sure friends for life! I think we’ve learned so much from each other and really hold the highest respect for one another. Real recognize real! 

It was sunny almost for a second, but as we turned the corner and headed into the valley where we knew we’d potentially be camping, the weather turned sour once again! The others were ahead of us and had already set up their tents to weather the afternoon storm! It started coming down heavily and Cheese helped me set up my tent quicker so all of my stuff didn’t get soaked! 

A hiker huddle

No one was on flat ground, this was an emergency setup to wait out the storm in the only bushes around! We are right at 12,000 feet still, so this is not exactly below tree line…

But then…

Compare these two photos to the last few! This change occurred in less than half an hour! 

We were so stoked that we weren’t looking at an all afternoon and night rain! Once it stopped and our tents dried a bit, we all fine tuned our set ups, and I even completely moved my tent about 50 feet away to a nicer spot! Big Pig and Landslide and Susan kept on trekking as it was not yet 6pm, but Digs, Cheese, Solar and myself were content to stay out for the night. We had done about 19 miles by 5! We all ate dinner together on a big rock, and talked about tomorrow. Bougie and Stoke had passed us during the emergency setup, and JumpStart who I met yesterday at the dinner came down and joined us for some food.

My new tent site! Still not perfectly flat but I feel VIP up on this hill with this view!

It’s going to be a cold one tonight for sure! Apparently there’s a full moon tonight that is 30% brighter than the normal full moons. Cheese and I are hoping to push a 22 mile day tomorrow, but the elevation gain will be over 4,700 feet for the day! We’re hoping to get a real early start and crossing our fingers for good weather. The next 22 miles are completely exposed above 12,000 feet! 

The views were other worldly today, and the company fantastic! I’m having so much fun on this last leg of the Colorado Trail! I sort of wish this had happened earlier on but at the same time am happy that I had some big lonely days where I had to mentally struggle and persevere, and now I just feel extra blessed with a hiking buddy and cool similar-paced hikers around with these amazing views everyday! We are feeling strong! 

Thanks for reading!