Day 19, Sunday July 5, 2015
Start 13-119WT North Fork Silver Creek, mile 1795.4
End 14-085WT, mile 1818.0
The day starts overcast and cold.
Mountain meadow filled with lakes and bounded by rocky peaks is the pattern for the day.
Around 10AM a light rain starts and continues for several hours.
I go through five wet-foot stream crossings during the day.
In late afternoon the trail goes over a series of three mountain passes.
A bit of snow is found on each pass.
Mosquitoes get really fierce and swarming around my |ace, so I must use my headnet. The rain does not ground these skeeters.
Then the trail goes down to more lakes and meadow, and the sun getting low, I search for a flat dry spot to pitch my tent.
My goal for today was to get as close to Pole Creek Trail intersection as possible, and I am only one mile shy of that, pretty good considering weather conditions today. The reason for my goal is that tomorrow I have to go off the CDT on a side trail for 12 miles, half a day’s hiking, to get to a popular trailhead, and getting a hitch to town should be easiest in early to mid-afternoon — I think.
In a few hundred yards I hear a group of hikers has a camp, and the glint of a campfire can be seen in the dark.
The views are amazing, but my body desires rest and recuperation in town.
[Finished audiobook With a Little Help by Cory Doctorow I am in bear country now, and stopped listening to audio until I became good at automatically scanning the trail ahead for creatures.]