Friday 17 th August

I was awake fairly early and was packed and ready to go. I hoisted my pack and carried it over to the cooking area. Retrieved my food bag and made breakfast.
Then I was good to go, It was a steep climb  that took me up to the ridge .Once up it was a beautiful day, but sadly I couldn’t see anything typical. I pushed on through the cover of the trees and then began my first climb and it was steep and again nothing to see .

Then WOW The mountains begin to appear.  The first was little haystack and it’s wow ,it takes me a while to get to the peak but wow. I sit for several minutes before continuing on. next was Lincoln again gorgeous.

After the dull months & miles this is the Jewel in the crown. I was just blown away .I was next onto Lafayette. but as I approached , it disappeared into the fog and cloud. That’s a shame I said to myself .But I had been lucky so far.  as I climbed it suddenly reappeared and wow just amazing. When I finally summitted there were about a dozen people milling around.

One man I spoke to told me that my next was Garfield  and the journey to it will be tough with a lot of ups and downs. oh and a storm around 2pm

I thanked him for the Info and began my decent. He was right, the first decent was good with rocks that were easy to navigate around, then i was back Into the trees and then the fun started.
It took me almost 2 hours to summit Garfield, but wow what a view and to look back over all the climbs that I had all ready done.
I found a sheltered spot and ate lunch and relaxed. as I sat there the clouds and mist came and went erasing my views before allowing the views to reappear.

Okay next mountain I set off gingerly down as the trail was a mess with very long steps where the water had washed the stone away. Eventually it evened out into a nice path and the next minute I was lying on the ground with blood leaking from my arm. Fuck fuck I had slide on a stone and grazed my arm
I lay in a heap for a few minutes before getting up and dusting myself down ,any other injuries ? No I’m good I continued on passing a sign for. a campsite and water. I stopped and grabbed a litre and was just about to move on when it began to rain.
I remembered the storm so decided to take shelter. The caretaker at this shelter was named Rachel and was really helpful and friendly. there was no-one else here so I decided to stay  so paid my $5.
As I relaxed in the shelter the storm seemed to have vanished ….typical oh well I’ll have an early night instead

Start. 1820
Finish. 1828
Miles. 8
miles to go 340