Exhausted to my bones

Day 90

Date: 30.07.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 1'817.7

Miles hiked: 23.3 miles / 37.3 km

Elevation: 4'173 feet ascent (1'273 m Aufstieg) / 5'338 feet descent (Abstieg 1'628 m)

Camping at: 9'314 feet / 2'840.7 m

It rained and thundered for a long time last night. I didn't sleep well again. I wonder if I will get used to sleeping in grizzly country till we reach the Canadian boarder! But my tent is pretty dry in the morning which is a huge plus. The nights are much colder here and I am often very cold in the early mornings. We leave camp by 7am and have to climb 2.5 saddles. They are a little sheepish at times but not for long and not bad at all. I thought they would be worse looking at the map. And they offer beautiful views! The sun and the blue sky are out again and it is a beautiful day.

Due to all the river crossings, rain and hail my shoes and socks are constantly wet. This caused two new blisters on the bottom of my feet, one on the left and one on the right foot. They are starting to hurt a little and each step you take, you are standing on them. Can't do much while hiking, especially as my shoes are still always wet. I hope they don't get much worse...

We climb Lester Pass, which offers the most amazing views to great peaks and many lakes. And great ice cold water, which tastes delicious. I sit on a big rock and just have to suck in these epic views. In what a wonderful world we live in! We start our descent, and break for lunch shortly later at a creek, surrounded by hundreds of mosquito's. My legs are full with mosquito bites! If there is a little wind, it's much better. We only stop to quickly eat lunch before we move on again. I haven't seen many other hikers this morning, but now after lunch all the hikers are out and we meet many, many hikers. From teenagers, to climbers to elderly hikers. Their backpacks are humongous and look super heavy! Some of them seem to struggle more than others😁 and I pass them even on steep uphills in no time. It's a good feeling!😁 Talking to them they would say 'oh we have seen two other hikers looking like you with these small backpacks on' and so on😆. Some of them know about the CDT, others have never heard of it. But everyone is very friendly and they all like to talk🙂. And I fully understand why they are here, the scenery is mind blowing!

In the afternoon we hike along an upper valley and pass hundreds of lakes. It is absolutely beautiful and I keep on stopping every two minutes to take pictures or to just enjoy the views. The clouds are back and we get some raindrops, but only very few. It is a very beautiful hiking day today. However, I didn't sleep very well the last couple of nights and today I really start feeling it. I think because of the views being so beautiful, hiking slow due to that, not sleeping much, the trail being flooded very often, the adventure with the hail and thunderstorms the past two days, not making much progress, all that made me super tired and exhausted. I stop and make a cold and strong instant coffee as my eyes have a hard time to stay open. It seems to help a little, but I keep very tired all afternoon. Later in the day we descend and seem to slowly leave the high peaks behind and hike out of the heart of the Wind River Range. I am sad, I enjoyed the last stretch a lot. But as I am very tired, I am also glad to be back on nicer and easier trails again. I put on some latin music and hike the last 8 miles faster again, reaching our camp site around 7pm. But my feet hurted badly all afternoon. I tried to tape them at lunch, but all the rivercrossings and flooded trails making my shoes and socks soaking wet all day just removed the tape. No chance for it to stay on my feet. I can barley step on my feet anymore. I needed a lot of willpower the last couple of miles to try to ignore the pain. I reach camp and am super exhausted. I change to my sleeping clothes immediately, and take off my wet shoes and socks to inspect my feet. The blisters don't look too bad but they hurt a lot. I am even too tired to walk around and check for a good spot to camp or to pitch my tent and start cooking, which I would do normally. At the moment I don't know where I shall get the energy from to do all this. I could just lie on the ground and fall asleep. 'Otter', a hiker I met the first time before Steamboat Springs, arrives too. He is of dark skin color, hiked the PCT and the AT already and wears all kinds of colors and carry's a guitar. It turns out he is a superb guitar player and while he plays the guitar I sit next to him on a rock, clean my feet and enjoy the sound of music. It seems to help me to relax, as I listen to his music. It's wonderful. When Vista arrives about an hour later we find a good spot below a group of trees just a couple of steps from where I was sitting. We pitch our tents (I am too tired to clean the ground from rocks and pinecones or to level the grown out), and cook dinner. Otter joins us. Again he makes me laugh as he pulls out his pajama. A Onesie from Stitch🤣 Must be heavy and bulky, but he claims it to be super comfy😂 Luckily I have ramen for dinner, super easy to cook, and I just try to swallow it down so I have food in my belly. I think I have never been as exhausted on trail as today. Everything seems to need much concentration, a huge amount of energy and willpower, as all I want is to fall into my tent and not move again! After I eat I finally crawl into my tent and must have fallen asleep soon. My tent isn't pitch leveled and I slip of the mattress. But I couldn't bothered anymore. I still heard lightening and thunder, about 2 seconds apart, so very close to us, but I am not worried as we are lower in elevation and camped in a group of trees and then I passed out. In the middle of the night Otter suddenly called something. I was bright awake within a second, but it took me several seconds to understand what he was trying to say. He had to repeat it 5 times! A Porcupine found its way into his vestibule! Well it's not a grizzly, I am relieved and fall back asleep immediately.

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