July 30th, 2020
Mile 305.5 to Mile 326.9
Today was such a good day!! I slept in again which is now becoming the new norm. I didnt get up until 7:45. But I feel like I deserved to sleep in this time because last night the elk were SO LOUD!! I kept waking up to the noise. It was screaming and screeching and it sounded like mountain lions and birds all at once. At the time, I didnt know it was elk. I was convinced there were a dozen mountain lions parading around the meadow but I was so tired I didnt care. It wasn’t until the morning when I asked Sling that he told me it was elk.
I packed up a little slow because I was chatting with Sling. But got moving around 9 lol. I got on my way and loaded up on water because there would be some dry stretches again today. Pretty soon I entered another burn section, which I loved. People complain about burn sections because they’re exposed and HOT, but I love them because I can be reasonably sure I wont see any bears or mountain lions and the wild flowers are incredible.
The lupine today was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. There were fields and fields of it through the burn section. I’ve never seen so much of it in my life. When a breeze went through it would smell so sweet and floral, kind of like honeysuckle. Before today I honestly didn’t know lupin smelled good. I took a break so I could roll around in it (I’m telling you, I was obsessed) and took some dumb selfies.
The day went by quickly. I didnt stop for a real break until 3:00. There was a nice spring with some icy water. I ran into a section hiker that was stopping for the day. She asked where i camped last night and where I was going tonight. I told her I was doing another 8 miles to Sheep Lake and she scoffed at me and said it was a hard climb. Bad energy.
So anyways I breezed through the 8 miles to camp. Got stuck in my head towards the end so put on a podcast. There are a ton of campers near this lake, I had a pretty hard time finding a spot. I saw a Zpacks tent and assumed it was a thru hiker so went over. They were in their tent already and must have been wearing headphones because they didn’t hear me talking to them. I didn’t want to camp too close without asking so I moved on. I saw another Zpacks tent and asked if they had room but they kind of said no in a roundabout way. A family on the other side of the lake was quick to point me in another direction when I walked by. Finally I asked a woman if I could camp near her and she passive aggressively said that there were 10 people joining her tomorrow but I could stay if I wanted. I assured her I’d be leaving in the morning and set up camp at last.
I ate a burrito and mushroom risotto for dinner and texted a bit with Emma and Matt. I will be meeting Emma Saturday afternoon so she can bring me my next resupply. We will also be car camping in the area with Maya and John. Going to try to wake up before 7 tomorrow!!
