Day: 213

Direction: Southbound 

Trail location: 1458

Cumulative miles hiked: 2178

Miles hiked today: 12.29

Elevation: 4661

High/low temp humidity: 85/58/15

Spinning on the turntable: Richard K. Morgan: Altered Carbon

This morning began with a four mile uphill haul. I felt surprisingly good! Are my trail legs finally making an appearance? Was it the olive oil with dinner last night? I’m not sure, but something is working this morning.

When I reached the apex of the hill I stopped and had a little break. I propped my backpack under a tree, leaned up against it and made a few phone calls to check in on my parents. One call led to another, and before I knew it I’d been sitting there for forty minutes. Time to move!

The downhill was good, really good, for the first two miles. Nice tree cover, nice spongy trail, green and beautiful. After the first two miles, the downhill turned tortuous for me.

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I really struggle in rough rock trail sections. Rocks that are apple sized, cantaloupe sized, all mixed together, are not my idea of fun. Honestly, it really, really hurts my feet. Anyway, I had a good six miles of very rough trail. I wear Altra Olympus because they have the MOST padding that I’ve found in in a trail running/hiking shoe.

I’m constantly twisting ankles this way and that way and kind of waiting to break an ankle. Did I mention that I really don’t like loose, rough rock?

Anyway, eventually I worked my way back into a forested downhill section. I stopped to refresh my water at a spring adn ran into this little fellow.

I only noticed the rattlesnake as I reached out to fill my water bag. It was hanging out inside/on top of the water trench. It didn’t shake its rattle at me, but it did very slowly leave the water trench and slither into the rocks. I cautiously filled up my water bag and retreated about fifty feet before filtering the water.