The Pain of Fog
Day 7 of the Trail: 17.1 miles hiked and Easter
A darkness has circled the land and a thick fog and drizzle obscures our view of Rocky Mountain. "Trail's over here," Thomas says. Then we hike.
It's was about 4:20 am when we woke up this morning and Michelle, a WH'er from 2015 class offered to give us a lift back to the trailhead the night before, at 5am. It was 5:15 am when I knocked on her door. She was still asleep when she answered the door but was able to murmur, "Give me 5 min!" I said, "Okay," and we waited. It was probably closer to 3 when she met us at her jeep. A 15 minute ride and we were back on the trail. We said, "Thanks," grabbed our gear and disappeared into the fog with only a headlamp as proof we even existed.
This next section had several steep and high climbs ahead...
Our first challenge was Rocky Mountain. My legs struggled to wake up and my pack, freshly stocked with more food, felt overly cumbersome. The climb was only a warm up, we were told. The next mountain was Trey and he was suppose to be a real beast. Nevertheless, we relentlessly churned up the hill like a locomotive in slow motion. Our lungs gasp and poles clinked against the rocks. We couldn't see more that ten feet ahead and our view only showed us more up hill. The thick fog then began to unleash it's rain on us. We stop only to put on our rain coats and continue up is the mantra. It's easier to drive forward than stop and restart.
Once on top we start the backside and shuffle down. Thomas' begins to feel an uneasy pain in his achilles but we move on. The top of Trey is our goal and you better believe we mean it. Once to the base of Rocky Mountain we are immediately met by Trey with a welcoming gradual incline. In fact, Trey was easier than Rocky.
After reaching the top we pause to have a breather and plan our next move. We had gone nearly 5 miles at this point. Our first destination of choice is Deep Gap shelter; another 7 miles or so. While cutting our way through the still dense fog we are soaked. Even with a rain jacket there is no real hope of staying dry. We are just keeping the cold off at this point. We stop for lunch around 12:00 pm and Thomas is in severe pain due to his achilles. Our progress slows but we have a lot of time to get to the shelter. Hike, break, hike, break: that's our routine and poor Thomas has suffered knee pains, and now his achilles. I know this, though, he is a tough SOB and by about 2:00 pm we make it to the shelter in poor shape. The slow pace has worn me down and Thomas aches badly. We break for about and hour as the shelter fills with the wet and tired and like the Statue of Liberty the shelter signals to the weary hikers.
It's amazing the power of a strong mind, food, stretching, and a bit of rest. We both feel remarkably better and decide we are crazy enough for another 4 miles of the rain, fog, and cold. At about 6:00 pm we arrived at a camp site about a mile north of Dick's Creek Gap. Still soaking wet and now throughly exhausted we put our tents up for the first time. I treat myself to a honey bun and some water before calling it a night. It's been a long, wet and painful day but we love it!
Happy Easter!
