Jammin' with Jameson

22.8 miles. I couldn’t get to the general store until 10 so I woke up late and had a filling breakfast of another vegan burrito and many of everyone else’s leftover pancakes. I luckily got a hitch to the trailhead and tried to get some miles done to meet up with the group I had met the day before at the general store. It was hotter than I expected with longer stretches of water carries than we were promised. I gave green thunder water and filled up another woman’s bladder which she really appreciated. I felt extremely energized climbing up the first push and was so happy to be greeted with a vast alpine meadow. I was finally above 10,000 feet and couldn’t have been happier. I screamed pure joy into the abyss. After lunch, Zorro caught up with me and we hiked together for the next few miles and talked about our travels. We made it to a beautiful bridge covered river with dozens of swallows zooming through the air catching bugs and dropping it off to their babies up in a nest. I felt good so I decided to do a few extra miles to get over the next climb. It was tough and I was tired but I loved seeing the lush scenery and eventually the alpine boulders decked out with my first marmot of the trail (which I didn’t recognize at first). I got up and over the top at sundown and arrived at a campsite to hear weatherman talking and joined their group for a nightly reading of The Alchemist (that I later found out was their first and eventually only time performing this ritual). I agreed to a 5:30 wake up and cowboy camped a little bit away where I originally set up.