CDT - Day 131 - Pintler Pass and Rainbow Pass
I'm really hoping the rain lets up tomorrow because these last few mornings have been rough. Once again, we were packing up our tents in the rain. It wasn't a downpour, but it was enough to soak everything. My hands were so wet that I couldn't even get them into my gloves.
As is tradition, the rain stopped within a few minutes of hiking. It stayed foggy and cold for the first few miles, but the worst part of today's hiking wasn't the weather. It was the blowdowns.
These were some of the worst blowdowns I've seen on the entire CDT. For the first half of the day, it felt like there was another tree across the trail every 20 to 50 feet. And these weren't simple trees you could just step or climb over. Many required going completely around them and bushwhacking through the forest. It made for an incredibly slow start.
We stopped for lunch near the bottom of our first big climb, Pintler Pass. I've started cold-soaking ramen in the morning so it's ready by lunchtime, and I've actually been enjoying it. I never thought I'd be cold-soaking anything, but I guess a thru-hike changes people.
After climbing over Pintler Pass, we descended to Johnson Lake, where we officially switched over to the final CDT map in FarOut. That's a pretty big milestone, and it'll also make calculating the remaining distance to Canada much easier.
Near Johnson Lake, we met a nice couple and chatted with them for a while. Then, naturally, it started raining again, so we decided to get moving.
Our next big climb took us over Rainbow Pass at around 9,250 feet before descending to Rainbow Lake. We ended up camping there, missing our 20-mile goal by only about 0.7 miles.
Oh well. Rainbow Lake turned out to be a pretty fantastic place to camp.
The forecast for tomorrow looks much more promising. Hopefully, we can finally dry out and crush some miles.