After 2 hours of quality sleep, I got on trail again around 5:30am. Man, it always seems to take far too long to get setup at night and pack up in the mornings. There is water to be filtered, teeth to brush, snacks to rotate out of storage into accessible places, a Thermarest that takes far too long to fold, poo holes to dig, and other deferred self-care.
The trail down to the river was scenic and fun!
At the river there were many campsites and I plunked down on a picnic table that was perfectly positioned to get the first rays of sunshine over the big ridge I descended. I finally was able to boil water for a delicious butternut squash dal and a hot cup of instant coffee.
Next was a long gravel climb on the east-facing hillside on the other side of the river. This was the bypass around hundreds of downed trees that a very determined ITT rider, Corrie Smith, had to climb over all night long. She is the current women’s FKT-holder with a well-deserved time bonus. It was getting hot already, but the area was beautiful with many more stream crossings for cooling splashes and clean water refills. Here I noticed my filter was starting to get clogged. I tried back-flushing it, but to no avail. As I ascended higher, the sun was pretty relentless. Luckily the climb flattened out as well, and there were some faster miles. I was reminded of why I hate gravel roads. It was getting boring! But still way better than 100’s of downed trees!
It was pretty dry up at the top along the gravel road paralleling the Winter Rim, and there was only one water source listed on the map for the section. I found a trickle of clean-ish water above the cow shit and away from the algae. I’m thinking of making t-shirts that say “I survived Currier horse camp spring”.
Next up was the spectacular Fremont point, overlooking gorgeous Summer Lake!
Here, two really nice forest service workers in a truck offered me water. Trail magic! Given the cesspool I last filtered from and the state of my filter, I obliged! They handed me 3 12 oz. water bottles. I had to pack out that crinkly plastic for a long way, but it was worth it.
The route rejoins the Fremont NRT after a bit more gravel, and by then the afternoon had gotten super hot, dusty and dry. I had fun on this section with Bruce when we toured it, but now it seemed in worse shape than before. I was so eager to be out of the desert and into the trees! I was definitely feeling like I was paying for only getting 2 hours of sleep. It was slow going.
Hagar mountain, though a steep interminable climb, was still a welcome respite from the desert. It was full of beautiful old ponderosas, amazing wild lilies and some interesting bird life.
On the climb up I often heard a high pitched tweet, and then right after a very low guttural almost machine-like growl. These two sounds always occurred together and the low sound always freaked me out. It sounded like a bear or a mountain lion or a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica or maybe it was an auditory hallucination? If anyone else knows what I’m talking about, I’d love to know which one it was! But I heard it again the next day, on the Windy lakes section, also around sunset.
The descent down Hagar mountain was an absolute blast! But by this time it was getting dark and I was low on sleep, had gotten behind on nutrition and my reflexes were not sharp. I had to be careful. Earlier on this day I thought I could make it to Antler camp, listed as having a well pump. But nope, to be safe I needed to get more sleep tonight. At the bottom of Hagar mountain, where you reach Silver Creek, if you go left instead of right to follow the trail you will find a really sweet campsite with a picnic table just up from the creek. Bruce and I had stayed here on our tour. I got there around 11pm – an early night! Kinda. I ate my leftover cold butternut squash dal and spent some time cleaning up and getting ready for tomorrow’s epic.
