Day 87

Great weather today, but super cold all night and morning. I was actually glad to have my warm sleeping bag…. and it was awfully hard to convince myself to get out of it before sunrise! There was ice and frost everywhere but the hiking was good anyways.

I met some hunters, and by met I mean, snuck up on them and scared the crap out of them. Really I just walked up and assumed they had heard me since they were HUNTING! But apparently you don’t listen for game, you just look. Anyways, I felt a bit like Bugs Bunny – I had to start alerting the hunters to my presence so they don’t get startled and shoot me.

I spent a lot of the day traversing huge basins with views in every direction. The downside was getting between them required a ton of up and down, making this another very tiring day.

I made a very inspiring speech (if I do say so myself) in my head to Clay, the captain of an Ultimate Frisbee team I’m hoping to play for next summer. I won’t get into the details, but yeah, it went on for probably 20 minutes.

I also noticed today that when I see certain shapes in the distance, I almost invariably think it’s a bear. The only exception is when I think it’s a sniper. Go figure. Either way, always gives me a start.

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 18, 2011
Day 87
Daily Distance: 28.3 miles
Trip Distance: 1664.8 miles