Hiking With Gadget Girl
It's All About The Adventure!
We started at Monarch Pass and Bella was so happy to be hiking with us.
Dave took the opportunity to ride the trail a little bit before turning around and collecting Bella.
Bella didn't want to go with Dave and ran back to me. It got sorted out and Linda and I continued up the trail. After the last handful of days in challenging terrain, it was a pleasure to hike such a mild trail today.
Except it was Sunday. Except it was Labor Day Weekend. We started counting mountain bikers that passed us and by the end of the day, 147 mountain bikers has passed us.
In addition, five dirtbikers, one bikepacker, five day hikers, and one husband on his dirtbike resupplying his wife on the trail. We spent a lot of time getting off to the side of the trail to let all these people go by. The bikepacker told us, not only is this segment the most popular in the state, it's also one of the most popular in the whole country. Apparently three busloads of bikers were dropped off and were going to be shuttled back after their rides. Wow.
So the night before, I had washed out my water bottle. I also switched the bottle nipple and apparently didn't rinse it well because when we started our hike for the day, I noticed that the water in the bottle was quite soapy. What?! I squirted out some water thinking it would wash the residual out. Not. I had to wait until we found the next water source so I could filter water and then do a thorough rinse of my water bottle. Sigh.
There was not much water on the trail today and we carried extra after lunch. We dry camped and still have a little over 5 miles tomorrow morning before we find another water source. Did a nice 17.3 mile day.
