CDT day 22-Miles Hiked today: 42
CDT total distance traveled: 761
Avg temps: 80s
Injuries: none
Pain: tired feet
Exhaustion level: moderate
Favorite meal: moms homemade vanilla latte The mornings are colder and the sun is taking longer to rise. I have a front row seat watching the days grow shorter. By the time I finish this trail I may have to be hiking into the dark. On this day I rode and hiked fast to stay warm. I climbed significantly until I stood in very high meadows with jutting rocks and ridges all around. A half mile away was a very cool looking geological formation so I took the detour and explored. As I continud to hike at this elevation I found one peak that rose above the rest and I decided to climb it. Peak bagging has always been one of my hobbies, even more than hiking and I could not pass up the chance to do both. Cottonwood Peak was the goal at over 11,000 feet. I was steep and the was no trail but overall the route was straightforward. It took an hour but soon I was standing on top and completely fulfilled. Now the real adventure started. I map and compassed my way down the steep rock and eventually connected back to my trail. The rest of the day was spent in high exposure fields walking through cow land. I saw multiple northbound hikers and once again a surprising number knew who I was. Actually a couple of them i met actually hiked with speedstick (girl trying the calendar triple crown who I hiked for about a week with on the AT who has since quit). Then later in the day I met a northbounder named Squirrel. It took a moment but after talking for a minute we realized we had hiked about 100 miles together in 2011 on the PCT. it was fun to see him and have that unexpected surprise. Let me know what you think of the new blog post layout.
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