We took an inch of rain the first afternoon on the trail and the winds were gusting to 70km/hr. With the cool temperatures the early stages of hypothermia set in pretty quickly after we stopped walking and set to work to make camp. Trees were crashing around us, but we were all in good spirits.
By evening we were fed and the rain had stopped so we set to work to dry some of the gear out by the fire. Warmth was really popular.
Uncharateristically, our August seems to still be providing plenty of rain.
We saw lots of wild life and found this moose rack along the trail. We also saw an elk rack later on. The highlight, though, was Trish's filled request of the land to provide her with a birthday moose sighting. Apparently the land always provides her with a large male on her birthday. Go Trish!
The +18kg packs Boo and I were hauling were not as heavy as what the others were carrying. Everyone took the extra weight heavily on foot wear. I made the mistake of taking only my orthodics and quickly punched a couple of blisters into my arches. Shoulders and hips were bruised, but that's par for the course and there were no wimps aboard, that's for sure.
Tyler is fresh off a tour of the West Coast Trail so was well prepared for the task.
Getting our feet up at lunch was very popular.
The view from our camp on night two.
Much of day three was spend walking through groves like this. We also spent a lot of time walking down spectacular valleys filled with late season wild flower bloom in full swing. The weather cleared up nicely and the temperatures remained cool. Nobody missed the bugs.
Here I am at the end of the trail.
I hadn't been back in that end of the park in 25 years. I'm happy to report it's about as I remembered it. Lovely.
Thanks for the write-up Papa. I love that one of Trish smiling with her feet up... so peaceful. ha ha.
ReplyDelete