Day 6

Near the top of Whitecap

We finally climbed another mountain!  Whitecap was nice right out of bed, a good way to wake up.  Our first night in a shelter was pretty solid too, no bugs and everyone went to bed early. 

I woke up early enough to watch the 3 older gentlemen get up and leave,  then we rolled out shortly after 8 into the clouds, climbing with a brisk wind pushing misty clouds by us. The top of the mountain ended up being obscured by them so we didn’t see much but it was still cool.  We then bumped up and down over some smaller mountains before dropping down to follow a river valley most of the afternoon.  We got to walk on a really nice flat trail for a whole mile in there too!

Megan found snow!

The end of the day was pretty tough though, first we forded a very wide river, which turned out to be only mid-thigh deep, but obviously soaked our shoes completely. We then climbed another mountain ending with a Katahdin-esque rock scramble.  After that we dropped down to another shelter and camped.  This one is super busy though!  At least 12 South bounders all making dinner and chatting, with Quiet Earp and others taking turns on the guitar.

After a beautiful sunset, we are back in our dry tent.  A few lingering concerns – Megan is still sick and my feet are getting rapidly worse.  Another full day of soaking in my shoes has turned the tips of all my toes into basically one big blister.  This is new to me! A new form of blister – top toe.  I haven’t figured out how to treat it yet, so far it’s just been “grin and bear it”