Day 1:

Highway 70 (0) to Jack Creek (10.9) – 10.9 miles

We left Grizzly’s house around 6:30am this morning. It was a long drive from Denver to the start of our trail which was just West of Encampment, Wyoming along Highway 70. Big thanks to Grizzly for the ride and we said our goodbyes at 11:15am and climbed up over the snow bank and headed into the woods.

It was a so go early on as we followed our Guthook app which showed us where the trail should be. We were going to spend the whole day on top of snow and not see a trail. It took us about 3 hours to go 4 miles and reach the top of the pass where we took a break. Crunchmaster made it up to the top about 30 minutes before I arrived. The sun was out and weather was actually pretty nice. By the time we finished up our lunch break, we noticed a few thunderstorms behind us but they looked to be moving to the East and away from. But I have heard what thunderstorms are like here in the mountains we decided to move on quickly.

While walking along the ridge for a few miles it appears we are walking towards a storm and it was hard to tell which way it was going and seemed to be just stationary sitting there. The sun disappeared behind the clouds and all a sudden there were thunderstorms all directions around us and thunder kept getting closer. Crunchmaster had a little cell service and checked the radar which showed three cells merging into one big one and it was headed directly at us. Up in the sky, it had the looks of something big and we could see lightning followed by thunder within a couple seconds which told us we needed to get off the ridge right away. The hail started and it was about the size of a dime as we rushed down the hillside into the trees and spread out a little and put on our rain gear and took cover. The hail got smaller but came down heavy as we were surrounded by constant lightning and thunder. After about 20 minutes, the worst seemed to past us and we decided to quickly move on and try to get to camp before dark.

(Lightning caught by Crunchmaster)

We continued downhill and I’m pretty sure the temperature dropped about 20 degrees when that storm hit us. We continued to make our own route through the snow and trees and finally arrived at Jack Creek which is where we planned on camping. It was 8pm and still snow everywhere. According to another hiker, the snow was supposed to be all gone by 11 miles in, but that is not the case. We set up our tents in the snow and I cooked up some teriyaki noodles and tuna for dinner.  It’s 35 degrees outside and as I got ready for bed, I realized I got sunburned pretty bad on my legs. Should of put sunscreen on but I’m used to hiking in pants everyday and only unzipped the legs because I wanted to keep them dry from hiking in the snow. Lesson learned.  The last three miles were slow and tough for me and I imagine the lack of energy was partially from lack of food and also day one on the trail and my body wasn’t ready for it. but we need to average around 19 miles a day so we will see if my body is ready for it.

Making our way through the snow

Top of the pass

Following Crunchmasters tracks

Taking cover from the lightning

Camp at Jack Creek

Dinner time

Sunburned