7.68 miDistance
2,471 ftElevation gain
4,008 ftElevation loss
4 h 49 mTime
It was still dark out when I woke up. Last night the clouds had started to get really low to the ground, and as we slept they must have crept in and over the campground because there was condensation of everything. Good thing I'm going to a hotel today with laundry services. I also got the earliest start of the trip so far today, mainly because mostly everyone else was too.
The way up and out of the refuge was rough. It was very steep, and I had to pause often, and it was hard to see as the fog rolled in, but it was totally worth it for the views once I got up there. The clouds were in abundance, and from my high vantage point I watched as they rolled over the ridge I had just come from, and the sun shone behind them, creating the best cloud inversion I had ever seen. I was truly above the clouds, and it was amazing. I paused there for a good amount of time staring and watching.
The rest of the way up the trail to the high-point of today wasn't too bad, but the descent was another story. The descent was really steep, and my ankles were so twisted. I had to traverse practically smooth rock and move nearly horizontally for a while, before the trail reached a point where it turned into jumping down from large boulder to large boulder. It went like this for quite a while, but luckily the descent eventually flattened out and the rest of the way was through forests.
This was the easiest walk into town I had had all trip. After the descent was done the forested part was so easy. And everntually the trail merged with a forest preserve, which had nice wide and luxurious gravel trails. It was so easy in fact that I arrived at 10:45 am! I needed to wait three hours before the room would be ready so I went over to the local refuge campground (practically across the street) to see if anyone had arrived and sure enough I ran into Peter and Tyezet. We went to a local bar in town (which was really just a grouping of 5 or so buildings and a train station) for drinks and snacks. Everything is very expensive in this tiny town, even more expensive than when on top of a mountain! We returned to my hotel and hung out in some lounger chairs in a garden area. But the room was ready almost immediately after sitting down so I said my goodbyes once more and headed up.
Finally, laundry. And I laid out all of my gear so that it could air out. I took a nice long shower, and then napped. It rained while I was falling asleep, love it! Dinner was soon, which was good because I was starving. The dinner itself was alright, nothing to great though, and I was expecting more from this hotel. And they have breakfast at 7:00 am so it'll be a late start to the trail for me, but that's ok because it's only 5 hours tomorrow.
