Day 21. Why we Hike

Mile 363 – Stealth To Mile 383 – Stealth

We picked a terrible place to camp last night. It was dark, we were tired, and we were on a tight ridge with only a few feet on either side of the trail. We grabbed the only flat/clear bit of dirt we had seen in miles and crashed without realizing how exposed we were.

After about an hour the wind and rain started picking up. Neither of us got any sleep after that point. After two hours, the wind was almost unbearable – way more than our lightweight, trekking pole tents have any business handling. By 3am, after multiple trips out to replace pulled out stakes we gave up. In the howling wind and rain we hastily packed up and started our day. After a few miles we worked our way across the ridge and down the other side where we found a sheltered place to set up again, dry off, have a warm breakfast, and wait for the sun to come up before continuing. It was a crazy start to one of our favorite days of hiking ever.

All day, as the sky slowly cleared, we walked over ridge after ridge, each revealing an entirely new world beyond. We are in a very remote area with no signs of civilization – just layers of pristine mountains as far as we could see.

It was so beautiful we didn’t even notice all of the climbing we were doing.

At the end of the day, after very carefully picking a place to camp, we watched the sunset. Then we watched as the sky turned completely dark except for the most brilliant stars imaginable. Rocket remarked how far away our morning ordeal seemed at that point.