The Reward of One Week

As you'll read in the Captain's Log, the three of us enjoyed a nice stay in a cabin, which allowed us good food, no wind, showers, and beds. This was essentially our reward for the one week of hiking.

We slept in Thursday morning, a luxury I beyond words, and with clean bodies and clothes, The Three Bears (our assigned group name) set out to continue our journey. This is when the real reward came.

Turns out that the next section of trail, with our included detour to the top, involved an almost mile climb. That alone was exhausting, but the fun didn't end there. We also had to slip, trip, and stumble our way over mounds of snow. Without proper equipment, snow is probably the scariest obstacle for a thru-hiker because a (likely) slip due to a small misstep can swiftly end your journey by sending you into a world of pain.

Now, on the way up, I imagined someone else telling me, "Hey, just look on the bright side." And that's exactly what I did today. What I ended up finding on that bright side was more unmelted snow, followed by a two mile descent over 20 desert miles without a water source. The bright side was not that helpful.