Dinner in Privy!

Day 130

Date: 08.09.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 2'690.0

Miles hiked: 29.3 miles / 46.9 km

Elevation: 6'440 feet ascent (1'964.2 m Aufstieg) / 6'463 feet descent (Abstieg 1'971.2 m)

Camping at: 6'355 feet / 1'938.3 m

It was a rather cold morning with a nice sunrise. The wind last night has blown away most of the smoke, which is very great. Getting ready Dave comes out and we keep on chatting for a while. He says that weather is supposed to change. The heatwave we could enjoy (or not because super hot at times!) the last couple of days has gone. There is a chance of rain this afternoon but for sure tomorrow. Also temperatures are supposed to drop remarkably. We leave Dave's amazing Outfitter around 7.30pm, loaded with a lot of food (I purchased some extra dehydrated meals for the next stretch after Augusta) and with 2.5L of water. Next water is in only 12 miles. The backpacks are heavy! But we are fast. There are some smaller climbs but within just a little over 2 hrs we hiked (or trailrunned!) 7.5 miles and caught up to Piper and Duskman, taking a break. Together we hike on till Flesher Pass, where we enjoy lunch at a picnic table next to a privy. Having a table and a bench to sit on, and even a privy, is just amazing for us hikers! We get water at a spring, again a 13 miles stretch without water and started climbing again. But the the sweater suddenly changed we could see it in advance. Big dark clouds appeared in the direction we age walking into. We climbed over a saddle and could see the clouds moving over the saddle. We literally hiked into the cloud's. It was so mystical. Just before climbing over the saddle we changed into our raingear, which was a clever decision. The clouds and the wind definitely cooled one down. Also, we run into a Swiss hiker, Mars, who is the 5th hiker we met hiking all three long distance trail in one calendar year,ajust crazy! The place we met was super windy and cold, so we just stopped for a minute to say hello before hiking on again. I would have loved to chat longer, specially as he was Swiss! But he was wearing shorts and no gloves and must have been super cold, so I didn't wanna hold him up any longer.

As of now, it is mostly downhill and we take this opportunity to do some trail running again. You know if someone asks you 'Hey, what have you been up to the last six month?', and you go and say 'Well, I have hiked nearly 3'000 miles and trailrunned every day for at least 30 minutes just to keep fit!'🤣 shortly before reaching rogers pass we can refill our water. The have left the clouds and and behind us and are running down the pass. One can see the autumn is close. The bushes are turning colors into red. It is beautiful. But it is still very cold. We escape into the privy! While cooking and eating in there, also Piper and Duskman show up and join us. So the 4 of us have dinner in a privy, what a lifetime experience🤣! While Soccermum and I decide to hike a couple of miles on, mostly because of tomorrow is gonna be brutal day of climbing and whatever we can do already today is less tomorrow, Piper and Duskman decided to camp here. Climbing up Rogers pass the weather turns better and we can enjoy a beautiful sunrise. We aimed to hike 3 more miles to a Yurt and sleep there but when we finally reach the Yurt in the dark, it was full of hikers. There was Captain, Cheetah, Mouse, Kingo and Grit. So we decided to hike on and found a 'suitable' campsite in the dark a little later. The moon was out and it was getting very cold by the time we pitched out tent. However, I am super happy with our progress today. We did many miles and climbs and tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy day with more climbs and the further we got today, the better.

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