CDT - Day 117 - First Elk Sighting
Around 10:00 p.m. last night, the heavens opened up and the rain started pouring, accompanied by plenty of thunder and lightning. It continued throughout the night and into the morning, finally letting up around 6:00 a.m. We had planned to wake up at 5:30, but with the rain still coming down, we all decided to wait it out. Once it stopped, we retrieved our food from the bear hangs, made coffee and breakfast, and hit the trail.
The weather stayed cloudy for the next several hours, with occasional sprinkles. The first five miles were exhausting as we finished the ridgeline before finally descending into the valley below. That section alone had about 2,000 feet of elevation gain from all the relentless ups and downs.
As difficult as the ridge was, it ended up being completely worth it because I finally saw my first elk on the CDT. Not just one elk, either—three entire herds were running across the hills. There must have been hundreds of them. Apparently, all it took was hiking 2,000 miles to finally see my first elk.
We had one more big climb for the day up to the Red Conglomerate Overlook, where we stopped for a late lunch and planned the rest of our hike.
We had hoped to make it at least 20 miles, but another thunderstorm had different plans. At mile 19, while we were collecting water from a creek, a storm suddenly rolled in. I ran up the hill into the trees to look for somewhere to camp and found a perfect spot with flat, clear ground.
We quickly pitched our tents in the rain and climbed inside to take shelter. Nineteen miles was going to be good enough for today.