A Gentle Return to the Trail

10:57 AM

To get everything a bit back in order—doing laundry, charging batteries, updating and uploading the blog, thinking ahead about upcoming stages, and so on—it suddenly ended up being 2:00 a.m. anyway. Still, I slept wonderfully; exhausted as I was, sleep is sleep.

First foot out of bed… might as well put the second one down too. I can stand, at least.

Okay, then I’ll get myself ready for groceries and getting everything sorted. Blisters are almost gone, trimmed and taped. Right, that should be fine.

In the little shop I stocked up on six days of food and, for now, got as much fresh food as possible: bread with cheese, tomatoes and lettuce, a pizza roll (one more, why not), an orange, a banana, tea… chips. I got coffee—wow, I hadn’t had that in a long time!

A quick call with my wife, who walked 30 km on the Camino Primitivo, and then it’s time to go. On my way to the trailhead.

11:55 AM

The body creaks and crackles a bit, so I’m taking it very easy. A bit annoying that I have to head uphill right away. Two passes ahead, and once you’re down in the valley, well, you need to put on layers or you’ll get eaten alive.

12:32 PM

Almost a yellow butterfly, Aimee 😍

1:24 PM

1:44 PM

I’ve crossed the first Tieton Pass.

2:04 PM

Then it’s all the way back down into the valley again and the climbing starts anew. I’ll leave Cispus Pass for tomorrow, but I am going to look for a spot above the treeline.

5:47 PM

Found a spot. Tomorrow I only have to do the final stretch of the pass, and luckily there are significantly fewer mosquitoes. The walking went quite well, but I did take it very easy—like an elderly person on the mountain, so to speak.

Total: 24.71 km in 7 hours 44 minutes
1,008 m ascent, 643 m descent