Jammin' with Jameson

23.5 miles. We woke up at 6:20 to a missing boogie and rain starting to come in. We scrambling to pack up and waterproof everything for the day. We had 5 miles to the pass and started with some light rain and a bleak sky. At one point I heard my named called from the trees and saw Cowabunga and Veto. They asked if I was planning to go over the pass because they thought it would be dangerous with snow and we’re going to meet up with Rogue Wave and Swell to wait it out til the afternoon. The best information we had was that the storm was going to start in full in the afternoon and didn’t think the sky looked that bad so I had decided to keep moving on and get over it as quickly as I could. Luckily the sky cleared up more as I got closer and I got to hear some of Prairie and Brightsides raps as we approached the base of the pass. It was a fun pass and had no indication of sticking snow. At the top we ran into JD and joined us for the descent. We ended taking alternate routes for most of the snow patches that looked sketchy and JD would get to the same point as us in the same time so I guess it was useless. We still had to haul it as we were getting drenched and the tree line wasn’t for another 5 miles and lots of descent. It was hard to see where the trail was as we only saw a massive lake covered by granite on all sides in front of us. We passed it on the slick granite sides which would have been the worst place to get stuck in a real thunderstorm and got to the super long switchback filled descent. It was beautiful but I was so preoccupied in getting to the treeline we could see up ahead. We finally got to it and stopped for lunch and some covered chilling but didn’t see boogie anywhere. I was so excited to hike for a while and then be forced to have a group hang out in my tent once the storm really started. We decided to keep going and just try to camp early. The sun started coming out and we found a nice river that we fished at for a while. Once we started walking again, it seemed like the storm was entirely clearing away and the mountains surrounding us started truly revealing themselves into a beautiful afternoon. We passed by a beautiful meadow that was barely visible and decided to detour to hang out and soak it in. We could see deer roaming and a guy upriver fishing. The mosquitos were horrendous so we had to cover ourselves in deet – the first of what would soon become daily tradition. Once we started getting ready to get up, prairie realized this would be a great spot to paint a watercolor landscape. I was in no rush so we decided to let him do it and I took a wonderful nap. Prairie didn’t think it was his best work but I thought it turned out really well. They ended up ahead of me after I took a bathroom break and I couldn’t find them at the campsite we agreed upon at 8:30 so I just ate dinner at the river and decided to camp there pitching my tent for the first time in a while.