CDT mile 1554.3, Miles hiked 24.4
Cheezy working hard to keep her feet dey
When we woke up I went and got our food bags and we started to eat and break down camp. “So we going with the plan from yesterday?” Maverick asked.
“Which one?” Cheezy said
“Just hike in two teams of two and we’ll see where we end up” he replied
“Fine with me let’s just say if all else fails we regroup in Dubois” I chimed in.
So it was decided Buttercup and Maverick would hike together and cheesy and I would hike as a team. We let them get ahead so we could hike at our own pace and do our own thing. It felt great knowing we could take breaks when we wanted, go our own pace and not feel like we were holding people up somewhere.
A swimming hole worthy of a dip on a warm summer day
We met a group of hikers from a church group in the upper Midwest, they were really nice and had been in the winds since the 3rd of July, they told us of the other hikers they had met and we chatted a bit. As we hiked in a voice from behind me said “Allgood!” I spun around and there stood Popeye, I hadn’t seen him since Cuba, NM he told me that he and everyone else has been trying to catch us, but we are too fast.
He hiked with us and caught us up on the trail gossip, told us who was close by, who had gone home and who was trying to catch us. Now I can only imagine some are trying to catch us to prove they are faster, others for our company. Either way, seeing Popeye for a few hours really lifted my spirits. He might have a stress fracture so he was bailing at Pinedale to see a doctor but before we parted ways he hooked us up with extra snacks and food.
Tommy Lake was a wonderful camp spot
We saw Buttercup and Maverick throughout the day, they would race ahead and then we would find them fishing. At our set cook time of 5:30 we found them at a set of lakes fishing, we sat and cooked and had dinner and then while they were still at it we headed out.
We started the climb up to Lester Pass and we decided to stop short at Tommy lake and tackle the final climb in the morning. We came up and there was a stunning lake with giant mountains behind it. We found a flat spot high above the lake, set up our tents and walked down to the lake to enjoy some lake views and wash the dirt and salt off our stinky bodies. Many folks don’t know this but salt left on the skin makes it hard for your body to thermoregulate, so getting clean helps keep you warmer at night.
We climbed back to camp and we got ready to crawl in our tents and away from the mosquitos the boys came hiking by, we offered them to join us but they said they were pushing on 3 more miles, “see ya in Dubois” we said and off they went. Cheezy and I chatted between our tents before falling asleep for the night.
