Day 51

Nissin's finest fills us with the right chemicals for the impending death march.

We claw our way up.
Backtracking is way too fun! God was looking out though. Instead of the forecasted mid 90's we got breezy, overcast skies.

Atop the rim we make our way north towards Mt. Washburn. As predicted, the scenery is other-worldly.

Which is necessary, cause we've been aggressively climbing the entire day.

We make it to the base of the mountain & find our campsite inhabited. Didn't we reserve this for tonight? Before we go compare permits we take a second look at ours.
We have no reservation for the night. Apparently the old lady at the permit office had a moment. Always double-check

Luckily the people in camp are a family I had pored over a map with a few days prior. Shane & I reintroduced ourselves. The dad has no issues. The daughter about our age did though. She was looking at Shane & it wasn't a mean mug if you feel me. ahahah. The dad said we just needed to find the next load of firewood. Sounds like a plan.

We explored the area & found a semi-legitimate place to stake the tents. We were to tired to think through the variables- we set up. Soon thereafter we fell fast asleep.

Woke up a few hours later, which by our sun calculations made it about 6pm. Still too tired to explore, & too embarrassed that we couldn't hold up our one end of the bargain, we just stayed in our tents and read the afternoon/evening away. I love reading but for 5 hours?

The moon finally showed its face. Sleep wouldn't though. Mostly because a 30 foot pine tree creakily threatened to end us.