CDT - Day 95 - Lava Mountain Lodge M1922 to Knoll M1949.5

7/28/15 Day 95 Lava Mountain Lodge M1922 to Knoll M1949.5 7689′

Tent – Nights Spent Alone: 11

27.5, 1784.4 Trip Miles

Mostly Sunny

Day’s of Snow: 8 – Day’s of Rain: 35 – Days of Hail: 17

# of Zero days: 11

Gila Crossings Final Total: 221

Tick Count: 4 (4 more crawling on me)

Wanted List

Mountain Goat

Grizzly Bear

Sasquatch

Black Bear

Bighorn Sheep

Velociraptor

Mountain Lion

Beaver

Unicorn

Wolf

Buffalo

Critter Count

1 Chipmunk

1 Ground Squirrel

1 Deer

Totals

1) 613 Pronghorn*

2) 383 Elk*7

3) 205 Chipmunks *5

4) 168 Deer*2

5) 152 Marmot*4

6) 120 Lizards*6

7) 116 Wild Horses

8) 82 Squirrels *9

9) 58 Ground Squirrels*10

10) 54 Pika

11) 46 Cotton Tail Rabbits *8

12) 30 Prairie Dogs

13) 22 Horny Toads

14) 17 Jack Rabbit*3

15) 14 Moose

16) 8 Snakes

17) 5 Coyotes

18) 5 Moles

19) 3 Porcupine

20) 2 Fox

21) 2 Rattle Snakes

22) 2 Toads

23) 1 Badger

24) 1 Mouse

25) 1 Skunk

26) 1 Weasel

*259 from car, *2 – 48 from car, *3 – 1 from car, *4 – 2 from car, *5 – 1 off trail, *6 – 1 off trail, *7 – 9 from car, *9 – 1 from car, *10 – 5 off trail

I slept better last night in my cabin. I didn’t want to get up that’s for sure. Unlike other rest days I actually didn’t do almost anything physical. This make it hard to get moving. It didn’t help that it was near freezing and new SNOW had fallen on some of the peaks near by.

Hitching was hard and a client of the lodge brought me some tea. Then a little later he drove me to the trail. I didn’t get started until around 8:20 am. Right off the bat I had tall wet grass to walk through. My feet were soaked and cold in no time. At the end of the day I reversed this by taking off my shoes which had dried from multiple river crossings and I crossed the last one bare foot.

Just after Brooks Mountain Lodge I caught She-ra and we would hike the whole day together. Just before lunch neither of us were paying attention and we missed a turn. It costs us at least 2.5 miles. We bush whacked it partially back to the trail which helped a little.

After the lunch mishap we paid more attention to turns. We saw three of four groups from a local Catholic college who had taken perspective high schoolers out. There was two groups of boys and one of girls. In total it was a busy day.

All in all it was a good day of hiking.

Scatman

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Get out there!