It was hard to leave the Alpine Club, not just because Sherpa’s leg was bothering her, but because it was such a neat resting spot. We both wish we had more time to lounge in the common room and read books about amazing real people going on amazing adventures. But alas, we must depart and close out our adventure.
We took our time leaving this morning though we woke up pretty early. Both Sherpa and I had difficulty sleeping. I had a severe allergic reaction to sleeping in the bunk houses so I slept in the common room. I wouldn’t have normally felt comfortable doing this since it was obvious that they didn’t intend people to sleep in there, but the huge lodge was empty so I doubted that it would offend. Unbeknownst to me, Sherpa had joined me on the opposite couch during the night. I had seen a body there but I though it was another hiker and so when I had to pee at 3 in the morning, I tip-toed out of the room and tried to make myself as invisible as possible.
I only discovered that she was there with me when I tried to go up to the bunk room to wake her up and she was nowhere to be found. I was thoroughly confused and she was even more confused when I found her at last downstairs and I asked her where she was sleeping.
Anyway, I made some coffee and we ate some left over pizza and browsed our phones for a few more minutes before hitting the trail. We were hoping to leave early today because we both really wanted to get a full day in. We were feeling like we had so much extra time to make it to the monument before our flight, but we had taken our time the last couple of days and now it is feeling a little more tight. We really didn’t feel like moving too fast in the morning so it looked like we might have our work cut out for us.
After we had packed all of our things and finished lally-gagging, we hit the road. The initial climb wasn’t too bad and it went by quickly. Before long we found ourselves in at Ridge Lake where we hoped to get water.
The water’s edge was peppered with day hikers and thru-hikers. On the shore we came across a couple that looked like they were out for a few days with their dog. They were playing fetch with their dog in the water. We skirted the edge of the lake a few yards and collected water. Sherpa noticed that her water was filled with little swimming red bugs. I tried several times to collect water without bugs but to our dismay we were forced to settle on buggy water. We hoped that the AquaMira would be strong enough to kill the bugs so we wouldn’t have little parasites floating around in our bellies. Luckily after we waited 15 minutes we discovered that they were indeed dead and we pinched our noses as we drank bug juice!
It was a hot day and full of smoke. We continued to nurse our bug juice as long as we could till we started to descend to where we hoped to have lunch. We ate lunch at a smokey waterfall on Delate Creek, next to a bridge, with a few other hikers. One of the hikers we recognized from our hitch in Chester. He had caught up to us after we had caught and passed him during our flip. I think we were all a little surprised to see each other and exchanged a quick head nod hello.
After lunch we set out to finish the last the last 9 or so miles of the day. Our goal was to go to a site next to an alpine pond. The rest of the day was shrouded in thick grey smoke. Above the cloud of smoke it must have been a sunny day because the sun was perfectly round and hanging clearly in the sky, though the intensity was reduced such that we could stare directly at it without it hurting our eyes. It had an eerie effect and we were able to take pictures of the sun.
We had a final ascent to reach the pond and we passed through a burned out forest followed occasionally mixed in with lush areas. We reached our tent site tired and ready for bed. I went to get water, while Sherpa set up the tent. At the pond I saw a little snake next to where i was hoping to fill up. The pond was clear but gray from the reflection of the smoke. There were many little picas chirping at me and I was grateful that the water wasn’t full of little red bugs.
When I returned sherpa was already cooking dinner and we hurried to eat and get into bed. We finished dinner, brushed our teeth and then got into our sleeping bags and watched an episode of Master of None. After watching Netflix we settled ourselves and fell asleep like little hiker babies.