Day 42 – 6/3/13 – 15 mi (729.1)

The first day back on trail after a zero is always the worst. Ninja, LoveNote, Stryder and I got back to the trail about 9:30am thanks to a ride from Beacon. Sweetfish stayed a little longer in town but plans to catch up to us soon.

The snow was miserable today. It’s melting fast, but that also means it’s mushy and you posthole constantly. LoveNote and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry everytime we sunk to our waists and struggled to crawl out.

The effects of the beetle kill were especially visible, with as much as ~80% of the trees dead.

Mid afternoon the sky darkened and we saw lightning in the distance. We were about to climb up and be on a very exposed ridge, so we decidd to stop and set up a tent to take shelter. Thankfully, after about 30 minutes and a few snowflakes, the sky cleared and we packed up and went on our way.

We got some nice ridge walking in the late afternoon, interspersed with slogging through snow. Camp is on a saddle at 11,800′. Brrr!

The Dailt Ninjup Report
Done in town.