09 1812.2 6/23/2021 sunny, cloudy with some sprinkles in the mountains, sunny. What a day. It was harrowing and so exhausting. I was on trail about 5:30 am. Mosquitoes were swarming right away. I hate those little buggers. So with a bug net on I ate quickly and was off. I wanted to do 16 mikes so I could see Justin tomorrow. The first climb was hard. But what made it even harder was the massive snowfield at the top. It was still too early so it was frozen and I could not kick in foot holes. Also I was unprepared because I didn’t have micro spikes or whippet ice axe or even snow baskets for my poles. So on my hands and knees I was able to climb it. Then I had to re-find the trail afterwards. Nope. Over and over and over I had to deal with snowfields and it got worse as the day progressed because the snow began to thaw. I was postholing galore. There were many times I had to climb around the field. And at one point I had a major creek underneath the snow and chose to climb way around it. Instead of trying to make my miles I decided to hike 11 hours and then stop. And how many miles did I accomplish – a measly 12.7. OMG! It was a terrible awful day. Oh and somewhere I lost my glasses. Sheesh. For the good news. I finally figured out how to blowup my NEMO air mattress easily.
