Day 25 – Thursday 8/6/2020 – 1683.1 – cloudy, some sun, afternoon monsoon sprinkles and hail, clearing at dinner. I went to bed at 7 pm so I woke at 3 am. I thought about starting in the dark but I didn’t. I got up at 4:15 am (a little early), packed up and was on trail about 5 am. I started to climb immediately and the MIO Energy helped. I tried to do regular cadence breathing, that is, no counting. It took me 2 hours to get to top. I was above tree line. Then it was cairn or pole to another one for miles. There was a sloped drop off on the right and a sheer cliff on the left. The trail was about 10-20 feet from the sheer edge. I had great views. However, there was no where to camp. It was too exposed. The wind was gusting and blowing constantly. So I began ascend James Peak, a thirteener. At first the trail rose gently. On the side the trail drop off was quite steep. It went down down down. Then the trail got steeper and steeper. I had to start counting 25s. It took me 1 1/2 hours of slowly climbing to get to the top. There I chugged some water and had a Payday candy bar. Nearby were threatening monsoon clouds. I could see for miles and miles. Then I began to descend. The steep descent hurt the bottom of my feet. I stopped to fill all my water bottles, because the tent site is dry. While there it lightly hailed and rained on me. After getting water I had to go slow. It was about 4 pm when I got to my tent site. The ground was rocky and surprisingly it took 45 minutes to finally anchor my tent. I have cell service and I sent Justin a message that today’s hike was very hard and I’m exhausted. My feet tingle. I did 17 miles in 11 hours. Wow oh wow!
