Day 105, Hmm I don't think the trail went that way

8/1
Daily mileage: 18.5 (plus so much not on the silly trail)
Mile 1965-1983.5

I'll admit it I woke up excited. I had stopped a little short the night before but I was at a lake and back in the land of mountains. How could I not be excited?
Hit the trail a little after 6. Yet again all intentions of an early start fail when you fall back asleep. Oh well, at least it wasn't 7.
Sisters Mirror Lake, my campsite


Unfortunately my eye has not gotten the memo and remains swollen and painful, but hey it doesn't feel worse...


And into the forest I went. I like this forest, more flowers than I've seen for awhile. Mixing it up a bit.





Then it was a gorgeous long meadow and glorious snowmelt streams. So delicious, and such a treat after all those ponds.


I was wandering along enjoying my views and not thinking much about the larger and larger patches of snow I was crossing.





I should have thought about it, or maybe denial is the way to go...
The first time the trail totally disappeared I rather smugly trotted my way along until I easily found a small bit of dirt again. That smugness came much to early. I then proceeded to lose the trail multiple times. Wandering in frustrating circles and getting more and more upset with myself was the bulk of my morning. I knew people had just been here, the guys could only be so far ahead and yet I couldn't even cheat and follow footsteps because there were none. At noon I had only made 8 miles, so frustrating. Especially because I am capable of reading maps I just doubt myself and make mistakes, and I feel like others probably just sailed right through. Yes this is silly, snow is slow going on everyone but I was feeling crazy.

Now let's play find the trail, sometimes you get a starting point but it never stays for long...












Somewhere in there footsteps did start appearing, and while still slow the trail started to become a bit easier to find. After staring at Obsidian Falls for a bit I took a break and chatted with 2 lovely women from Portland. I stayed much to long but I just wasn't looking forward to the snow. I really should have left sooner.








I'll keep it simple. There was a lot more snow, unsigned junctions and me. Tired and hungry and making mistakes. So many hours today were useless, at least the views were great. Stumbling along I finally just found a windbreak and crawled into my sleeping bag next to a lava field. So ready for bed.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone