Meetup: Day 26 – Friday 8/7/2020 – 1692.5 – clear, windy, sunny, cool. I woke at 4:45 am and was on trail at 5:38 am. I descended until a stream. It was on a saddle. Then I began the first climb towards the Mount Flora summit. The trail was very rocky. At one point the rock trail disappeared because, I think, an avalanche had recently happened. Slowly I crossed the disruption and found the trail again on the other side. There were lots of switch backs. Up and up I climbed. I kept my breathing controlled. No 25-counts. It leveled out for a while. Next the second climb began. I was now again above tree line. The trail still had a lot of rocks. It’s amazing how you can easily tell where the trail is going in a rock jumble. The hand of man is so obvious. At one point I did get off trail and using Guthooks I carefully found my way across a jumble of rocks and back to the trail. Up and up I climbed. Over a ridge and I was again on a somewhat flatter trail. One more climb, the hardest one yet, was coming up. I met two section hikers and we chatted briefly. They were doing a 75 mile section. They said you must be Tartan we met your son. I said I was and I was in a hurry to get to him so continued on. I began the last climb and there he was. Oh such a wonderful feeling. The wind was calmer here. We were on the lee-side of the mountain. I sat and had a snack. He brought me a Squirt soda. It tasted so good. After the snack we climbed in earnest and soon we were at the top of Mount Flora. There were other day hikers in groups sitting here and there. The wind was blasting. Many of the day hikers had move down off the peak to get out of the wind. We headed down in the buffeting wind. Mile after mile passed. Several groups were coming up and we moved off trail to let them go by and give them COVID-19 social-distancing space. We could see the tiny cars down on the highway and in the parking lot. Finally we got down to the lot. It was just 12:15 pm. All I wanted to do was to sit, drink another Squirt, and take my shoes off. Justin made a great lunch with fresh cooked chicken, chicken-flavored rice and a PackIt Gourmet spicy corn chowder. Yum! Then we turned to planning the next leg. I’ve decided to do the Silverthorne alternative. Less height, less miles and less difficulty. The only problem is we can’t find the elevation diagram. We’ll need to adjust our meetup points too. Tomorrow is my first ZERO DAY. Casey, Kyle and Tam are coming for a small hike. It should be fun.
