Journal Aug 10 – Lupine Lead the Way
A windy breeze kept a chill to the morning, but dried things out. A large weasel bounded across a log not far from camp, urging us on as we packed up to continue our trek.
The day was much the same as yesterday, more ups and downs, including some steep stretches, more clouds (threatening, but no rain), more mountain passes, and more stunning scenery.
Lupine lead the way up all the passes along with a supporting cast of many other wildflowers, notably Yellow Columbine that has purple highlights on some petals and Indian Paintbrush as vividly red as we’ve ever seen.
The top of Rainbow pass was guarded by a young Bighorn Sheep ram. He ran away after we got close enought to get a good whiff of our “scent”. After a knee jarring, calf tightening descent we had lunch at Johnson lake. As we arrived we saw a couple of backpackers taking the non CDT route on the other side of the lake. During our late lunch, the clouds thickened and the temps dropped, as if a front had moved through. Thankfully still no rain.
A long, grinding pull out of Johnson lake brought us to Pintler pass. On the way up we encountered two northbound hikers, Curly and Annalisa, retired women hiking the CDT in sections. They intend to finish the CDT next year, completing their “triple crown” – the CDT, AT and PCT.
Descendng from the pass to Pintler Creek, we passed a youth group of 7 or 8 headed for Oreamos Lake, and heard about another group of 11 or so camped at Pintler Creek. My but the Pintlers are popular today! We got to Pintler creek, got water and headed back up.
After our third big climb of the day we regained the high country and came to a rolling plateau, just below the divide and above Elk Park. The clouds had cleared off completely. We camped just southeast of the divide, amongst a thinly spaced grove of gnarly old Fox Pine trees, at about 8,800 feet, our highest camp yet. With the sun already down behind the divide, the clouds cleared off and at our high elevation the temps dropped quickly. We ate dinner, enjoying the late evening light and the stars and quarter moon, but not lingering long. After the last bite from the cookpot we hurried into the tent, realizing that in just a couple weeks the cooler temps of fall will be upon us.
Miles 14.0
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