Day 93 - Thursday, July 29

Tenting at Paradise Lake (mile 1629.0). Walked 20.3 miles today.

We woke up and hung around camp long enough to see a very nice sunrise.

The stars were fantastic last night with the milky way right overhead. As we were getting ready to leave camp, one of the people who was camped next to us mentioned a bear. Apparently there was a bear in camp last night about 20 feet from where Frank and I were cowboy camping. She had frantically sat up and nudged me to wake me up and it worked, but I don't remember any of this. The bear ran off at her sudden movement. Luckily it didn't bother us any further.

We got out of camp about 7 and ridge walked for a bit.

We got to a stream, but the smell of cows made me reconsider the water source. I decided to opt for the next water in a few miles, even though I was running low. We continued the ridge walk before a slight descent to a spring. Here, we got water and I hiked on ahead of Frank, agreeing to meet up at a spring in 11.5 miles. From here, the trail climbed up and over a mountain with some spectacular views on the other side.

The trail stayed close to the ridge here before dropping down and leveling out through a burned area.

The burned area gave way to an unburned forest where I stopped for lunch and to wait for Frank, even though we were still 5 miles from our meeting spot. She turned up after a while. She had been walking slowly because she's so tired. We hung out for a bit and the I pushed on to the water source we had planned for.

I walked along a ridge with views of Marble Mountain ahead of me.

I dropped down in elevation before climbing back up a bit. It's hot out today And I was really sweating on the climb. I got the the stream, filtered some water, and chugged a half liter.

About the time Frank arrived, it started thundering to the east. Frank looked terrible when she arrived, completely exhausted. She got some water and we hung out for a bit before climbing up to near a ridge. We hiked along this for a while, Frank moving slowly. I suggested we make camp at the next site. She agreed and I went ahead to get set up.

I got there to discover that there wasn't really a site there. When Frank arrived, we discussed our options and chose a site 0.7 miles ahead. Again, I hiked up to get set up. When I arrived, I found plenty of space and a great view of the lake and surrounding rock formations.

We ate dinner and did evening chores before both climbing into my tent. We're both in here because Frank sent home her tent as she now has a hammock; however, she doesn't have a rain fly for it yet, so with thunderstorms threatening, she needs some more substantial shelter which I was able to provide. My tent is larger than hers was and so it fits two people a little more easily, but it's still tight.