Day 12

12 miles
Today was a scorcher! We got up slowly from the comfort of the hotel room, and Jay invited us to breakfast with him, Malcolm, and Sprinter. They had all finished their meals before we got there, but were hanging out a bit longer before starting up the climb into Washington. We crossed the Bridge of the Gods and then up the trail. The heat advisory turned out to be true, the climb was brutal. The highest my watch said was 97 around 5pm. Along the way, we passed a pair of section hikers who had just completed the first mile of their hike. Their plan was to stop and take a short break every mile, and shoot for 10 miles a day. That sounds so nice and leisurely, but I would find it frustratingly slow. They seemed jazzed to be starting their adventure though and that was fun. I’m glad I’m only carrying 4 days of food since they had 8. Malcom and Sprinter only have 3 for this stretch to Trout Lake. We likely won’t see them again since they hike bigger miles than we do and they’re already ahead of us. They intend to flip back down to Chester southbound to do the Sierras after they reach the Canadian Border. When we got to camp, there were already a few tents there, but we snagged a decent spot.  There were 3 hikers stuffed like sardines in a one-person tent watching a movie on someone’s phone. Good times. This is the same camp spot we stayed at the last time we hiked this section.