Captain's Log: Day 75 - Mile 1206.2

June 26, 2016

The elevation profile for the day promised rolling 500 foot climbs and descents all day. It delivered. On top of that it was hot already at 6:00am and only got hotter.

We stopped for our first water at Whiskey Spring. Sadly, it was one third of a mile down a steep side trail and there was no whiskey to be found. As if to make up for this, we ran into a large group of nobos shortly thereafter including Napoleon! He had some of his own crazy stories from the Sierras that involved being lost for two days and running out of food.

Two hours later we came down to a road crossing to find a father and his two children doing trail magic! He had thru hiked in the 80's and now lived just down the road. Nobos Mr Elusive and Ryan were already there and we were joined shortly by Limpy and Early whom we had met in Southern California. We were treated to cold beer and fresh hamburgers and hung out for over an hour before packing up and continuing onward.

We had a large climb up from the spring with some incredible views. Near the top we began hitting some larger patches of snow and once we were up on the ridge we hit the steep icy patches we had been warned were treacherous. Compared to the stretches we had been through these weren't a problem at all which was a relief.

We ran into a number of section hikers along the ridge and stopped to talk to each about the trail, gear, and the like. We stopped for a longer break to talk with three generations of a family next to Summit Lake. They were packing up and so we began refilling water and continued our last 3 miles of the day. We were on an outcropping of the ridge set up for a perfect view of the sunrise, town was only 11 miles downhill in the morning, and there hardly any mosquitos to speak of - life was good.