Day 65 – 6/26/13 – 17 mi (1098.0)

Glancing at the daily mileage total, one might think we had a bad day. However, I have a great attitude about how today turned out. When planning in town, we counted up mileage on our Ley maps and determined it was 40 miles from town to the other side of 14ers Grays and Torreys. Our fellow 2011 PCT friend Bert was trying to coordinate meeting up with us, so making out target was important. Since we did 20 miles yesterday, we figured we had 20 miles left.

Mid-morning we came upon a herd of mountain goats. This is the first time I’ve ever seen even one mountain goat, let alone 11 including a baby! We stood around watching them for almost a full hour. They were so cute and amazingly unafraid, getting within a few feet of us.

The route was tough today, following ridge lines and going steeply up and down over every peak along the way. At lunch we looked at our maps and determined we still had 17 miles left to get over Grays and Torrey’s, but we’d already gone 10 today. How was this possible?? Oh, because Breckenridge to the other side of the peaks is actually 47 miles away. The Ley maps for yesterday were off by 7 miles. @$&%#!!!!

Fortunately, we had cell service and were able to call Bert and let him know we wouldn’t make the original destination today. Instead we found another road just 7 miles away from us where he could meet us. It was still a tough 7 miles, including a steep trailless downclimb over loose scree that is somehow the official route. When we finally arrived around 4:45, Bert and his girlfriend Megan had burgers already grilling for us! We stuffed ourselves and then ate some more. It was great to meet up and the magic was a wonderful treat.

The Daily Ninjup Report
We found Ninja and Sweetfish camped just a mile up the trail from us this morning, so they’re back with the group now. Ninja tells me she’s all up to date on her push-ups since I last reported.