CDT79
12th July Wednesday
29 miles

4:45am I was on the trail, headlamp was required and down I went from an elevation of 10,400 feet and within 2 hours I was walking at 8,000feet . First hour was on snow and then I left all that behind but not the wetboots with mutable river crossings.

View along the way

I have a habit of changing my socks two to three times a day, the wet socks I tie to my backpack  to dry, by doing this, my feet don’t tend to stay wet all day and look horrible and wrinkly.

Back in Lander where I did my resupply shopping, I thought I’d save money by buying a large container of peanut butter and then split it into three by filling ziplock bags.  Well, what a mess it turned out to be, every time I want peanut butter I have to find the opening of the bag and then work my spoon into it getting the stuff everywhere in the process. I have three other packagers I did the same to, so that’s something to look forward to when I pick my food boxes at the post office in weeks to come.

Peanut-butter in a ziplock bag, not a good idea

Stopping for the second breakfast and looking at how low in food I am, with no more than two days worth of food left, but with 70 miles to the highway I should be ok.

Looking at the map to see what I need to do , I have a BIG climb this afternoon, from 8,000 to back up to 10,000 feet,  to Gunsight Pass and I’m sure once I go above  9,000 feet there will be snow and my pace will be cut in half.

Green River Lakes

I looked, but there isn’t anyway around it, no shortcut, no side trail that’s below the treeline. So it looks like it’s going to be a long day but the positive is that my backpack is as light as you can get it.

Detour, bridge washed away.

I made it to Green River lake campsite, where I start the Gunsight Pass , not before I had to make an hour detour, one of the river crossing that was meant to have a bridge had been washed away, I tried to cross but the water was too swift and deep so I had to backtrack to found an alternative trail, fortunately there was another bridge and really, it didn’t take to much out of my way.

Gunsight Pass, what was I worried about, sure it was a long climb which took 4 hours but, no snow. I was surprised, I was sure once I hit 9,000feet, I’ll be knee deep in snow again just like the last couple of days.

Camped at 1986 miles