17.5 Miles
Above Coyote Creek
Last night was cold. Really cold. How cold? Well I woke up with a sheet of ice on my tent from my condensation freezing. My sleeping bag was drenched from condensation from my body heat being trapped in the frozen igloo of a tent I had. Waking up and getting the day starts was a bit delayed until the sun was semi-shining to sort of dry out my gear.
The wind was whipping something fierce this morning and the hiking up and down bald grassy PUDS (pointless ups and downs) was draining. To climb strait the hell up an ATV track just to go down to go up again multiple times all morning was super frustration and in my opinion inefficient. Spins and I kelp staring to the east in the valley wondering why they couldn't have just put the trail there. But we know why because that's not where the divide is and it would be way to convenient. The worst part about the balds was the wind though hands down it was bitter cold. I kept my jacket on all morning which I hardy ever do.
Lunch was taken at around 8 miles in at a nice spring right before Morrison Lake. After we started hiking again I heard some rumbling, not of nature though. Three ATV's were cruising on the horizon and zoomed around and minutes later (miles away mind you) they caught up to us. They made some small talk and headed down to the lake. When we got to the Morrison Lake, which is gorgeous maybe because its the only water body in the area, the guys wave us down. I've learned never ignore invitations on the trail and the guys chatted with us for a solid hour and gave me bars, candy, a pbr, and a whiskey shot. After gaining a light buzz, Spins and I headed uphill some more but the wind was gone and the sun was blaring at us.we ran into outlet first nobos (northbounders) on trail which were an older couple making their way to the lake for the day. It went from freezing cold this morning to cooking this afternoon. We continued to climb and ran into another couple hiking from Seattle while we were eating dinner at the top of coyote creek. They hiked the AT the year we did but blazed through it and finished in July!! When we finished talking and eating it was already past 8 and it began to get nice and chilly again so we made it a bit further up until we found a nice spot nestled by a rock face. Tonight should hopefully be warmer with the warm afternoon and less wind, one can only hope.
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