Day 32 - Going Up to Go Down to Go Up...

July 20

19 Miles

Johnson Lake

The morning started off cold but with the help of some coffee I got out by quarter to eight. There was a short downhill and followed by the first pass of the day to get over named Cutaway Pass. It went by rather quickly and the scenery going up was fantastic. Crossing over down into the valley took a short bit of time and since we went down, we started going right back up towards (walden) Lake where I had lunch. The last three tenths of a mile were up short steep exposed switchbacks which made it hot as hell and I was ready for a dip in the lake but unfortunately the lake was shallow, may e next time. After hanging around the lake in the sun baking, leaving up over a small pass, I really started to feel an energy drain. The sun was pretty hot but not anything more than usual. I was pretty out of it. Maybe it was all the food I ate at lunch trying to coerce me into an afternoon nap or maybe it was being a bit dehydrated but I was foggy, tired, and spaced out. I pounded a good but of water over the course of the next few hours and the sun's power wore off a bit and I started to feel normal again. 

Heading up towards Rainbow Lake was done in a daze but the mountains surrounding the lake were epic just as the last few lakes. The other nice thing about the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness is the availability of water. After being in dry flat road walking stretches its nice to be in mountains with water flowing everywhere. The trail snaked around Rainbow Lake and went up just like the others through an nice exposed area covered in beargrass and I made it up to Rainbow Pass at 9250 feet. I had plan Ed to hike down two miles to Johnson Lake then up over Pintler Pass and down another two miles to camp but with all this up and down business and a later start I figured heading down to Johnson Lake where there is tons of designated campsites and calling it a night would be a great idea. So 19 down today, Pintler Pass in the morning and then up on the divide until town which means back to little water few and far between. Yay!