Day 41

Slept a bit poorly due to a windy night combined with scratchy grass making weird noises on my tent. It was good to be off my feet either way though.

In the morning we started climbing on the divide with great views into Idaho. We got up to our highest point yet on the CDT – 10,200ft on top of Elk Mountain. 360 views from up there. I felt pretty good getting up there, as I used my secret climbing weapon – Gatorade powder. It comes out rarely but works wonders.

After the big mountain we climbed up and down the divide for another 10 miles while thunderstorms threatened all around us. Eventually one got us, blowing hard in our face with hail and pinpricks of rain. We eventually dropped down to a pretty lake and had dinner. 20 minutes into dinner though, another storm rolled up, so we headed out with dinners still in hand.

During all the climbing today, I had some ridiculous songs stuck in my head. The first one is 100% Hailey’s fault as she played it for me while visiting. I know one line from it, apparently it’s a SNL skit called “The Only Gay Eskimo”. Very tedious when you only know the one line. Next up was Jingle Bells, no need to explain how annoying that was. Finally, Laundry Day from Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (amazing if you are nerdy and have not seen it). Unfortunately, I just had the first two words on loop in time to my walking. Regardless, they all helped me get through a long day, so I guess it’s not all bad 🙂

Daily Summary
Date: Aug 4, 2011
Day 41
Daily Distance: 27.5 miles
Trip Distance: 730 miles