9 July

9 July: we all woke up and started packing around 5 AM. night one was in the books with no rain and nice cool temps. today was going to be an easy day of hiking- no passes to summit. instead we were going to hike 11.2 miles in what you could call a high meadow or basin and find a campsite with water and cover in an area called painter basin.

 

the trail had a lot of ups and downs today though, it would drop to 10500 then back up to 11000.  I was glad that we were doing a relatively easy day since the elevation from yesterday had taken a toll on me. first night I slept only a few hrs and the food tasted bland so I dug a hole and buried most of my dinner. I figured I expended at least 5000 calories while taking in less than 1000. to compound the fact I had left my spices sitting in the cupboard instead of in my pack...big mistake. I also left my drink mixes at home, but that part is livable. It seems at high altitude your taste buds sleep but your body doesn't. I think I had an average of about 3 hrs sleep per night even though we usually were in our tents by 8-9 PM. I'll take some Excedrin PM meds with me on my long hike as well next time. I also had discovered that my Sawyer water filter was clogged and my ability to filter water was at a trickle instead of a steady stream. All stuff you can work around.

 

I believe today was the day we saw a huge flock of sheep and a sheep herder and his horses and campsite. we had to walk right in the middle of the flock and we were moving them to the next valley for a while. Talks did center around lamb chops and mutton. I think a few days later into the hike the talk would have been action instead of just talk.

 

we found a nice campsite overlooking the valley with water not too far away. The next day we would summit Anderson pass and one of the guys on the team (Larry boy) would summit kings peak, the highest point in UT. Around 10 PM a herd of elk, spooked by our presence came rambling/stampeding through our campground, not 15ft away from my tent. Definitely got my attention.

 

 

 path ahead on some nice trail. most of trail had rocks in it and was a rock hopping experience...sort of like the AT

 my tent for the night, right past the little trees was where the elk came running by at 10 PM

 sunset

 path we had just covered- painter basin

path heading up to Anderson pass