Day 90 - Monday, July 26

Tenting at a saddle (mile 1586.1). Walked 25.9 miles today.

Broke camp at 6:20 this morning and climbed up the first of many steep climbs today. Yesterday, we did 31 miles and had 2200 feet of elevation gain (which is really low, especially for that distance). Today we're planning fewer miles, but we'll have over 5800 feet of elevation gain which will likely exhaust us.

We entered the Trinity Alps wilderness and it was immediately clear why it was called this: very Alps-looking mountains all around us.

We hiked along a ridge for a while and got water at a couple of water sources.  Frank, Lenore, Hocus Pocus, and Phantom Dooker all leapfrogging each other throughout the morning.

We stopped for lunch at a spring and then pushed on again through moderate ascents and descents.

We arrived at a great water source and I dunked my head in to cool off.

Minnesota Jocko caught up to me here and we began a long and steep climb.  I passed Minnesota Jocko and at the trailhead just up the road, ran into his wife who was out there to meet him.  Frank and I continued the steep climb, resting as we needed.

After the climb, there was a descent, followed by another steep climb to end the day.  We met Phantom Dooker and Hocus Pocus at a water source.  They were planning on camping here tonight.

Frank and I continued on for another mile, climbing over a high point and down slightly before reaching a saddle between two high points.  This will be home for the night.  Another hiker, Always, told us today that it was going to be cooler tomorrow (66 degrees in the mountains).  After looking at the clouds (and using Frank's satellite communicator to check the weather), we determined we should set up our tents as it looked like a decent chance of rain tonight.

We were witness to a gorgeous sunset through the trees which lit our camp with a golden orange glow.

We got in bed and a few minutes later, the first raindrops started falling.  Looks like the tents were the right call after all.