Day 27, 16.5 miles

Last night was INSANE!! The hard rain and continuous thunder and lightning made it hard to sleep. Things finally started setting down at about 3:30am. And then, out of nowhere seemingly at about 4am, a SUPER bright flash and an insanely loud and earth shaking boom at the very same time! We are almost certain that the strike landed 100 feet away from Cheese’s tent out in the point! Needless to say, he didn’t sleep at all and I slept for about a hour. We ended up leaving at 8. It sounds really scary but we are both glad we had that amazing experience! 

Cheese’s tent still standing!

I had a slightly more sheltered spot

The PERFECT spot that someone else was in last night! Live trees all around and nice level soft dirt 

Well, as we started… (guess what), yup, climbing! It was… (you guessed it), foggy!! But soon a lot of the most rolled out and even though it was still chilly and windy on the passes and ridges, we had beautiful scenery and quite enjoyed the morning!

As we hiked on we met another Sobo CT’er named Gar. We had seen his campsite along an epic ridge from our viewpoint perched above the scenic outlook last night. He said he had an amazing campsite yet a similar scary experience! Gar is a cool dude! 

Can you spy Cheese climbing up the ridge? 

Zooming out

Even further! (It was a huge ridge)

Photo by “Gar”






Cheese and Gar headed down a STEEP rocky traverse down towards Taylor Lake

After a water break and a pack explosion at Taylor Lake, we climbed just a little more and then started a long descent that took us through exposed screw fields and eventually along a beautiful creek all the way down to 8,500 feet! The lowest I’ve been on the trail since day 3! 

Flowers galore

A lovely aspen grove

Down at the junction of Junction Creek I rolled up to see Cheese had already set up his tent and Gar was chillin’ on a nice log bench. Cheese was airing out his things and soaking his feet in the creek and drying his boots and socks out from the wet few days we’ve had. Gar had an extra dinner and gave it to me since he heard I was low on food (CLAAAAAAASSIC me!!) I was so thankful!

😋 thanks Gar! 

Super cool guy! Lived in Oregon from ‘92 to ‘05, has done a lot in conservation and told me some cool things/groups to check out if we find ourselves back out there! 

After chillin’ for awhile, Cheeseburgler and I decided to hike 1 more mile up the hill to a potential campsite. When we arrived, we discovered that the same people who scored last nights epic site had already occupied the two nice flat spots! It was starting to rain and we didn’t want to go further so we found a couple suitable spots for our last night on trail. I had to get creative! 

Almost literally “On Trail” 🤣 

The boys!! 

Cheeseburgler (real name Greg) 🤫, has become a very good friend. We’ve helped each other out in many ways on the trail. It’s really nice hiking with a buddy. Problems you encounter seem less huge and more solvable. Spirits are better and you have an outlet for all those inner thoughts we think of in our daily lives. He’s a great person and in the last nine days I’ve made a true friend for life! We finish tomorrow! 

Thanks for reading!!