Meetup: Day 45 – Wednesday 8/26/2020 – 2006.9 – clear, sunny, cool, no rain, heard thunder in afternoon. I woke at 5 am. I skipped morning poo. It is not raining, but I still put on rain pants and jacket. I was on trail around 5:50 am. I have four climbs today. I’m also racing the weather if it decides to rain in the afternoon. My first climb was long and the grade medium. I met a husband and wife couple who needed water from Justin a few days ago. I passed them and kept going. We played leap frog for a while. Then I got ahead permanently. The second climb was shorter but steeper. It went straight up the front of the hill. I really don’t like those. I stopped at the Creede Cut Off for a snack and to take off rain pants. The third climb was the longest and also steepest. It had few if any switchbacks. It had a long long descent too. I stopped at East Mineral stream for lunch. Then I did the last climb. Although shorter it went straight up the hill. I was getting tired. I descended to Middle Mineral campsite. No one else was there yet. I got there about 1 pm. It took me seven hours to do twelve miles with four big climbs. Ugh! I setup my tent and laid down for a short rest. The water here is three cascading beaver dams. Wow! Those animals are amazing. I’m looking forward to seeing Justin tomorrow. Only 10 miles to get to him. So far no rain has happened today. Then at 5:30 pm I got hail and then rain with thunder. Here’s hoping that it’ll stop and be clear again tomorrow. We shall see. We shall see. I seem to be saying that phrase a lot recently.
