at 37.4513, -107.9754
Last camp. There is nothing special about it, which I guess is appropriate. I’m in a dense wet forest a thousand feet below Kennebec Pass, the last pass on the trail.
Although I hiked with Willis today, he decided to stop at Taylor Lake, some 4 miles back and a much nicer camping area. But I felt the need to keep moving.
The forecasted clearing trend lasted all of one day. Today was a day of on and off drizzle. It didn’t really get us wet, but sheets of rain obscured the views from our ridge line route and made the hiking dull and tedious: work. It seemed to take forever to get to the last summit, the last walk above timberline. It seemed like we should have marked this event with some ceremony, but we just took pictures of each other against the dull skies and headed down. A hard hike today. No big climbs, but lots of little ones on steep trails, and I’m not feeling especially thoughtful or eloquent. It feels good to be laying down and resting.
mile 460 – last high point