Mile 1537 to 1566.
I fluttered out of sleep after hearing a loud voice off in the distance yell, “RISE AND SHINE CAMPERS!” We slept next to a trail head with parking, and I figured some bro saw some tents and yelled out of his car window at 5:30AM as a joke. Before I could contemplate this, I was slipping back to sleep and wasn’t sure if I actually heard a yell or if I simply dreamed it all up!
Evidentally, Hawkeye did not want to have a repeat day of “the fog,” so he woke up with energy to spare and wanted to get everyone up and going with a morning wake up call!
I jumped on board the Hawkeye train, and after racing him to pack up our gear we smashed out 15 miles by 10:30. I hiked with him all day and was entertained by his many life experiences. When he was young he rode with the hell's angels, then transitioned to low wage government work, went back to school for a masters degree, played a large role in the London Olympics, started his own consulting company and eventually became the director of a non-profit animal rescue. Wow! He has stories, experiences and interests all across the board. We make a very nice pair as we can talk about motorcycles, business strategy and outdoor exploits without missing a beat.
The day went by quickly and we hiked later into the night than usual. We aimed to be at our campsite by 8:30, and since being on time is very important in the woods, we ran the last quarter mile. Up a steep, rocky trail to reach the saddle exactly on time. Think I can put that on my resume?
We had a wonderful surprise at the top of our climb: Spearhead and Hicker! I have become quite the connoisseur of footprints over the past couple months. I mean… Why not? I spend many hours a day staring down at the trail and enjoy matching footprints with trail names. Anywho, a few hours before we reached camp I called out, “I see a Spear footprint! And here is Hicker!” What I’m saying is that I am now on par with Jon Lock as an expert wilderness tracker.
And let’s get back on track -- the campsite was windy as heck, and we crammed about 9 people in between the trees on this high altitude site. With Slow Magic fully back together the energy in the air was high, and we spent a full hour yelling back and forth between our tents as we sat awake with excitement.
