My camera is basically a 3 pound brick I’m carrying at this point, so I decided to send it home, however we were in such a rush to get out and resupply I’m town before the post office closed I forgot and left my camera at the hiker hut. Not the worst mistake, I’ll just carry it to the next town, which is only three days away anyway. When we got back I mentioned it to Steve (the owner of the hiker hut) and he said someone left some white rice, so I figured I’d let my camera sit in a zip lock bag overnight with rice to try and get rid of the moisture that had gotten in. We had some drinks with a woman (trail name Beast) Spoon knew and got food and had a great evening. In the morning I started updating my blog and then remembered the camera, so I pulled it out of the bag and turned it on… nothing as expected. I plugged it in to my power bank and then the viewfinder came on!!!!! It takes longer than it should to start, and the back screen isn’t working, but as luck would have it my camera was back! And I didn’t send it home! Spoon had new shoes and socks and was excited for the trail. Beast on the other hand is suffering from a case of hiker fatigue, she didn’t want to hike and was exhausted, but also felt like she needed to keep moving. We hung around and had some amazing egg sandwiches at the hiker hut, some other hikers wandered in and we talked a bit. Spoon and I were determined to enjoy the ridge on a nice day and convinced Beast to join us at a leisurely pace, just 10 miles to the next campsite past the exposed ridge.
The day was fantastic, we hiked up to two ponds, the first was dead silent, so amazingly peaceful. not a sound. No planes, no people, no cars, no wind… nothing.
We got lunch and filled water at the second pond which was even more beautiful than the first.
Then we climbed, it was a sweaty climb, but not unexpected. Once we got above tree line we were rewarded with the most amazing 360 views. We took breaks and talked, then climbed more and took more breaks.
We Climbed down and back up to the Horn and at the top, yup, we took another break and just let it all soak in.
It did get cold when the clouds covered the sun and the last 0.7 miles to camp involved losing almost 1000’ of elevation (super steep), and it was getting time for dinner so we eventually headed down to camp.
Spoon and Beast both said it was their most amazing day on the trail, I could say the same, but them saying it means a lot more than comparing it to my 6 other days. The views were exceptional and so was the company.