Meetup: Day 39 – Thursday 8/20/2020 – 1916.6 – clear, sunny, monsoon clouds, rained twice, clearing after dinner. I woke at 5:00 am. My sleeping bag is damp, and my tent is damp. I should have known. Sleeping next to a lake has that effect. I was on trail about 5:50 am. Immediately I had to climb out of bowl of mountains. I began to listen to an audio book. On the other side were more lakes, rocks and descent for miles. At the bottom was the next climb and it was broken into four sections. Some were not so steep, but others were awful. I climbed slowly. I reached the top and descended. At times you could see where the trail cut a path onto the next mountain. As time went by the monsoon clouds began to form. Around noon to 1 pm I put up my umbrella as it began to sprinkle. Over time it rained harder. My right side was get soaked with cold rain. Soon the rain stopped. A little while later it rained again. This time with some small hail. I was almost to Justin. One more hill stood in my way that was part of a ski area. Although it was only a few hundred feet to climb I was so tired from that other climbs. I descended, took a left, went down the forest road and I found to him. I immediately put my pack in his Jeep, got on my vest and rain jacket and got inside his Jeep to get warm. In a few minutes the rain stopped, the sun came out and I could relax. We chatted. I set up my tent. I did my resupply chores. He made a tasty meatball concoction for dinner. My next section is 27 miles and I’m going to take it easier if I can. My sore left ankle causes me to gimp around camp. It is just fine if I’m sitting still, but I’m worried it’ll get worse. We are near the road and can see and hear the trucks and cars ascending and descending from Monarch Pass.
