Backpacking, Day 2

Flight From the Mosquitos

In the morning we packed our gear and fled the mosquitos.

We were slowed by occasional stretches of postholing.

This did not slow the mosquiteos.

Eventually we made it to high ground with breezes that thinned out the mosquitos.

Our campsite.

The steep incline left me a little winded.

We took a quick break to snack and hydrate.

Before continuing on we rocked a group photo.

I scrambled up some boulders in search of a better view.

Champions.

... and then we got lost

It wasnt long after the ridge that we lost our trail for good.

We ended up bushwacking for miles trying to pick up a trail.

For many stretches everything looked like this.

Not cool with a heavy packs.

We explored several options that covered various altitudes.

Our assessmet of the topo map conflicted with the altimeter on my GPS watch.

It started to sink in that there was nothing but forest and mountain around us, but no trail.

A lot more of this.

Wyllys grew skeptical of my GPS data.

I remianed confident in my beacon: the beer stash marker I'd set which was roughly 6 miles away.

We did see a lot of really beautiful wildflowers — This one is Colordo's state flower, a Columbine.

Despite our growing unease we kept up good spirits.

After a few hours of uncertain bushwacking, we found a trail that ultimately led us towards the beer stash.

A sight for sore eyes (and legs): our beer stash and ghost town home.

Cheers!