Glad we stopped last night where we did.
We got our earliest start yet, 7:40. The first part of the trail hugged a mountain. We were at about 6400 feet. At one point the trail was very narrow, lots of shale and dropped straight down. This was exactly like the recurring nightmare I had as a child where I always fell. My fear of heights kicked into overdrive. It was all I could do to look down at the trail, take small steps and not think about falling.
The rest of the day was hot and dry with a lot of ups and downs. Scrub brush that was waist to shoulder high, dirt and an occasionally boulder.
We got water at Sunrise Trailhead. Picking up my pack with 6 1/2 liters of water is not enjoyable.
We had a very steep descent a couple miles after that and then a big climb out of the canyon we just went into. Have I mentioned it was hot? I have smelled bad since day one but I think today I reached optimum stench!
As we got closer to our next water source we ended up hugging another mountainside. Narrow trail and steep drop off. I made the mistake of looking up once. After that I just kept my head down and watched my feet. I couldn't tell you what either side of the mountain looked like.
Made it the next water source and once again loaded up. We have at least twenty miles before we might find water again.
Decided to go a little farther down the trail. It was another steep descent. The sun went down us and before we had to put on the headlamps we found a small patch of dirt to lay out our sleeping bags. And that's all we're doing. At least the wind has finally died down.
No comments:
Post a Comment