We had every intention of making two hikes in a single day yesterday, but our bodies had different intentions. When we got done with our first hike yesterday, Matt’s knee was really bothering him, mine and Mike’s feet hurt, and I had a killer headache. On top of all that, the hike itself took twice as long as my book said it should–I guess the time estimates are for experienced hikers, which we certainly are not.
It was still a lot of fun. It was definitely as far from any trace of civilization as I’ve gone on foot. Just the quiet was nice, with the exception of an occasional airliner passing overhead. There were several boulder fields that we had to hike across, which gets really monotonous after awhile. From the high peak, we had an awesome view of some lakes to the east, and we heard quite a few elk bugling in the pines to the south. If it wasn’t for the boulder field between us and the pines, I’d have hiked over there to try and catch a glimpse of the elk.
If it wasn’t for my GPS it would have been a much more difficult trek. I forgot to mark a waypoint at the car before we started hiking, so I had to follow my track log back to the starting point, which wasn’t as nice as doing a goto on a waypoint (can’t use the compass). Since we didn’t want to follow our previous route back to the car, we just followed the arrow on the map page in a pretty much straight line back to the car, and occasionally picking our way around the more difficult terrain.
We’d planned on getting back to Mike’s house before noon, but we didn’t make it there until around 3:00. Even if we hadn’t all been too worn out to go on another hike, we wouldn’t have had the time. But I suppose that’s ok with me, since I got home a day earlier than I’d planned.