Something knocked over the cooking pot last night/early this morning, waking us both up.  I was still lazy from sleep, but I heard Nick get up and search the area with his headlamp.  After a bit he muttered to himself, “huh, I must have been dreaming” and then he went back to sleep.  Of course, he hadn’t been dreaming but, as he had already scoped things out, I didn’t feel the need to correct him. 

In the morning, I confessed to Nick that he hadn’t been dreaming and that something did indeed knock over the pot.  He seemed a bit relieved to hear this because one of his shoes wasn’t where he left it and he thought he was going mad.  Neither of us knows what the culprit was but we are both happy it didn’t wander off with one of Nick’s shoes.  

Packing up was painful because it was pretty chilly down there by the river, but I figured hiking would warm me up soon enough.  I did put on my puffy gloves, though, because my hands were freezing.  

About a mile from camp we walked past the area where the dead horse was supposed to be.  We didn’t see the dead horse, thank goodness, but we certainly smelled something foul.  While we didn’t walk together most of the day, we certainly stuck together there.  Happily, no bears or other large animals made their presence known.

Once past the danger area, we once again hiked our own hikes.  I was cold a lot longer than I expected, mainly because we were in the valley most of the morning.  We didn’t feel the sun on our faces until 9:30 am and I wore my alpaca hoody and puffy gloves until well after 10 am, which is when my hands warmed up enough to feel mostly normal again. 

To help with getting warm (because the sun had difficulty reaching us through all the trees), we had the aptly named Switchback Pass to contend with.  It wasn’t the worst incline we’ve faced on this trail (ex Hope Pass, Gray’s  Peak), but at 3.5 miles and over 2200 ft of elevation gain it was a nice reminder that we still have work to do on this trail.  We spent a lot of time in the trees as we hiked up switchback after switchback (it felt endless - it was definitely named appropriately) but there were some nice views, too.  

After meeting for lunch on the other side of the pass, we hiked past another wall.  It wasn’t as impressive as the Chinese Wall we saw yesterday but it was still cool.

Once again, it turned out to be a beautiful day for hiking.  And, once again, we didn’t hike as far as we wanted to.  This time there is no excuse other than the terrain slowed us (well, me) down.  It’s not the end of the world, though.  I guess.  :)

Tonight we are camping on an island in the middle of Strawberry Creek, which seems like the safest place to be as we are in the middle of a burn area and there are dead trees everywhere else.  Let’s hope we will also be safe from anything trying to steal shoes or wake us up by knocking over cooking pots. 

Along the trail:

Camp: