June 25, 2013

June 25, 2013

Day 8 - it goes up. it goes down. 

5 miles south of Marias Pass to just before Beaver Lake

~27 miles (+4 bonus miles)

What a day. It started off well enough, making it 10 miles to Badger Cabin for a nice break in the sun. Kicked off the shoes and laid down on a bench for a good while. 

After the break, in a post lunch induced head haze, I missed a trail junction and went 2 miles in the wrong direction. Yikes. That meant a total of 4 miles to get back to the junction with another 15-18 miles to go (on the correct trail) for the day. I was not happy with myself, but tried to put the mistake in the past and move forward.  Nothing to be done about the lost time or extra miles, just keep calm and carry on. 

After another 5 miles or so and a solid climb I was drained of energy so I stopped for a hot meal. Oh man, that was just what I needed. I was able to get going again and made better progress down the trail. 

It was certainly not the most fun day I've had out here, but I made it through. It's the hard times that make the good times that much better, so hopefully I can look back on this in a few days with that perspective. And I've learned my lesson about paying attention to trail signs because the CDT is often subtle at best. 

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