Segment 15
I'm up restlessly
most of the night, the air in the hotel too still to bear. I go to
the lobby— the one place in the hotel with wifi access—at 6:30
AM. Breakfast is served a bit after 7, sad muffins and frozen bread,
fruit cups and coffee. We eat quickly, with resignation.
Our morning isn't
fun. Granite can't find his fancy camera, which has all of the photos
of our trip. He calls all the places we visited yesterday in Salida
and nobody has it. We search the hotel. No luck. Then I roll up my
sleeves and go negotiate with the general manager about reimbursing
us for our lost hiker resupply box. She has no interest and
completely refuses, but after about 20 minutes I've handed her the
receipts from yesterday's shopping and she's grudgingly agreed to
reimburse the cost of the room to the credit card.
We hitch back to the trailhead and it's already after 11 AM. If we had followed our original itinerary, then this would have been an easy section: 8 miles of steady downhill. But alas, we're doing it in reverse and we've got to regain all our lost elevation to get back to the Collegiate West. So now we have an 8 mile climb.
The weather is
bright and clear, clouds drifting by. We set off and I let
Granite go ahead; I want to walk alone. We end up walking alone most
of the day, steady climbing. I was really worried about this section
but the climb isn't so bad. Streams are abundant and we have
countless yellow wild flowers.
We decide to camp
early so we can be by a stream (I love the sound). We're surrounded
in every direction by wildflowers, and when the tent is set up, I
crawl inside and look out the door and it's bright yellow wildflowers
among the trees, the stream delicate and gentle.
Thunder builds
outside, crashing like timpani, but for a while it's still sunny.
When the rain comes, it starts gently, pattering on the rain fly.
Then is crescendoes, pummeling the outside world. We're snug inside,
and I love watching the water bead on the rainfly above.
We eat during a break in the rain. I'm freezing so duck back in the tent. Wool hat, wool socks, wool base layer, puffy jacket, sleeping bag liner, sleeping bag, and peppermint tea. Perfect home.
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