The plan was to hike past the two next huts and camp right before Stag Saddle, the highest point on the TA.
Hunter, Flow and I got going around 8 and it was immediately uphill, in hindsight it would have been better to leave a little earlier to avoid the heat, but it wasn’t terrible yet.
After the small saddle near the hut the trail had lots of small ups and downs as it worked its way up the valley.
We had lunch at the first hut just before noon and got going around 12:30.
By the time we got to the second hut it was hot and we decided to take an extended break to cool off and miss some of the heat of the day.
We started hiking again at 5:30, which turned out to be an excellent choice, because it was just cool enough so we could climb up to the tarn without being miserable. It honestly wasn’t as tough as I expected and was absolutely amazing!
