Day 1 route
Day 1 elevation profile
Day 1 route |
Day 1 elevation profile |
9/4/2012
52 low last night. I got up at 6, Mike was up at 5:30am. We had breakfast, broke camp, drove from Lodegepole to Crescent Meadow, and were hiking by 7:40. Yes, I said WE. Mike decided to hike part of the first day with me. We would like to do a hike together next year, and deciding if our hiking styles are compatible is important. My pack is HEAVY (35 lbs) with 8 days of food and 2 liters of water. The Circuit backpack is still comfortable, it is just heavier than I like.
After taking the customary photos with the starting trail signs in the background, we were off. About 15 minutes into the hike, the view opens up and you start paralleling the 7200-7500 foot elevation contour along the side of the mountain. Fantastic vistas all along the entire section of trail. The trail is not level, despite how the topo map looks! A lot of smaller ups and downs... Plenty of water on this section. I was carrying 2 liters since this was late in the season during a dry year, but I could have carried 1 liter. I tried to mark with the GPS every water crossing where the flow seemed to be a year round flow, but YMMV so please hike safely.
I hit Nine Mile camp at 2pm. It was early, and I considered pushing on to Bearpaw Meadow, but it had started lightly raining, so I decided to make camp. Of course, as soon as camp was setup, it stopped raining! I had stew (not freeze dried), coffee, rolls with real butter for dinner. Now that is backpacking food!! This spot has bear lockers, which was good since I needed it for the first day. There were a few flies and moskies, but nothing significant. I thought I had lost my bandana. Losing something already!! Then I found it stuck to my pack. Cool. The bandana is part of my sun protection system, bath towel, and hand towel, so I was glad it was not lost.
3 deer decided to hang out with me at camp. I have never seen deer playing before. They were running, play fighting, and totally ignoring the human in their midst. So cool. I took tons of video. They stayed close to my camp for over an hour.
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