Jefferson

Woke up this morning stiff and tired. Groggy tired. Coming down the stairs I knew my ankles were angry at me. I tried not to worry about it as we atalked about the details of today's hike. I popped some ibuprophen. After trying in vain to locate clean, dry socks (I am packing WAY more than I need next time, of course, I hope not to have a boot with a gaping crack in it next time either) I decided on the old plastic-bag-in-the-boot trick in a last-ditch attempt at waterproofing.

Ray decided to hang back for this one and I considered it too, but I idint' feel all that horrible, and I could at least take solace in the fact that this hike would be easier than yesterday's. We set out under "socked in" foggy skies, but it wasn't very cold, so we were in decent spirits. The trails were mostly less steep which my sore joints really appreciated.

The path was kept quite misty ahead of us and kept me from looking up and feeling overwhelmed. We found a lot more species to be in bloom, yellow mountain avens, 3-toothed cinqfoil, alpine azalea and mountain heath.

We stopped by a bog community wiht hopes of seeing a field of wildflowers, unfortunatly the snow had only recently receeded and the plants weren't quite in bloom. At this point, my boots, I'm sure, were wet, but my plastic baggie in the boot trick was helping.

We ascended from the spot up a quick, steep climb to see an unusual sight... SNOW!

The last bit of a snow bank remained and was melting. Around it were a bunch of flowers. Folds from the class slid down the snow patch in turns, I refrained because of my boot holes.

From there we decided to summit Jefferson - a "short climb" from where we were. About halfway through the climb it got steep and difficult, my heart began to beat hard and I was out of breath like on the first day's hike in. I went up slowly barely able to see the rest of the class in the mist but they kept encouraging me.

From the last tall cairn, it was only a quick scrabble to the top - and I got to the summit. As out of breath as I was, I kept thinking, DAMN, I CLIMBED TWO MOUNTAINS?!

The view, unfortuantly, never opened up for us. The way back was the way we came up but thankfully down this time.

My ankles started to twist and get unstable during the decent. Briefly the coulds opened and we could see the Great Gulf and castelated ridge.

Most of the trip back was uneventful until we heard thunder and had to hurry for cover. The wet rocks combined with fatigued ankles and rushing wasn't too safe and I tweaked both my knees and ankles even further than they already wor on my dead shoes. Fortunatly, I didn't take abig fall, and we soon made it back to camp without being electrocuted.

I took a nap then attempted to go out and do my plot readings. Just as I got there it started raining - hard. After that the thunder came, and I had to hunker down for a while until it passed. When I saw the rest of the group coming down the trail I joined them, sloshing back under thinkdering skies. I was also lucky here that the only thing I got from that trip home was ver wet.

The probelm at camp is now that 75% of what I brought is now wet. I'm writing this in the moxie shirt and black leggings. My other pants were completely soaked.

I'm optimistic that I'll at least have something to wear tomorrow, if not the best option possible. I am MUCH more concerned about my boots though, they're... dead. But then, what will I wear down the mountain tomorrow???!?!?!

Alright I'm off to bed, I need the warmth of my sleeping bag to dry me off a bit.