The first few hours were a lot of switch backs. We just had to go straight up, basically to the top of the saddle, and then down, and then up again, and then down again. The first ups weren't too bad because we were well rested, but we didn't have a ton of water because we didn't want to pump at our campsite because it was so rough on our filters. We got up to the top of the first saddle and didn't see any water. But we stayed and chatted with a few other hikers at the top. We then hiked down, and down and down, until we got to a cute little meadow with a fun stream, and pond and such. We took a 30 or so minute break to pump water, have some snacks and hike around a little bit.
Next section of the hike was up again. Not straight up at first. More of a mediocre up with some flats and a few downs. We stopped somewhere in the middle and had a quick lunch. The sun was out, but it was still pretty chilly in the shade. We finished our lunches and headed out. The sun was out most of the day today so most spots of the trail were dry. We did have a few really muddy, swampy gross spots that horses had basically torn apart. But only 2 or 3 of those. Finally we made it to the top of the continental divide. For most of the day we were hiking along the Chinese wall, and then the wall turns a different direction, and we hike up and over the saddle. While we rested at the top, some of us brave souls ventured up to actually touch the wall. Most of the time it was too high up and too far away to even attempt to get to the wall. But at the continental divide it took us two minutes to jog up a steep hill to get to it. It was frigid up there. The wind was howling like crazy, and we were above tree line so there wasn't anything to protect us from the wind. Somehow, the one bug that was up there decided to sting Tallus. Literally, the only living thing we came across up there stung Tallus. Just his luck for sure. There was a quaint little patch of snow that Tallus and I wanted to go play in, but it was so cold that we decided it wasn't worth the hike down to it.
Once we got over the continental divide we had to go down. Lots and Lots of down. I do believe that I may have got my first start of a blister here. The trail was so steep, with lots of switch backs, and it just kept going and going and going. We were all just about out of water, and completely exhausted when we hit a dried up river bed. No water, but just near a place we had camped 5 years ago that last time we came. My dad went and scoped it out, made sure there was water there, and then sent for all of us to come and join him. We had a fun little camp nestled in the trees and near a babbling brook. There were also lots of deer in this campsite. We woke up in the middle of the night to some stomping and tromping and crashing sounds. I know I am not the only one in our group that thought it was a bear. Levi sent Kyler out of the tent to scope it out while he got his gun ready just in case. They got out to find it was a deer. The deer tripped over our tent fly strings, ate someones shirt, and also took a few bites out of a roll of toilet paper that someone left out. Silly thing.
This is us trying to get as much sun as we could while it was out. We are trying to dry out our tents, and our rain flies, and our sleeping bags and our packs. Basically we are trying to dry everything we had.
Paul is modeling with our tent. He was so proud that of himself for getting our tent all flipped upside down to dry ;)
Our day 3 pictures. Kind of blurry, but thats okay.
Just a snap of the typical day. Nena brushing her teeth in the background, and Nayeli and Lincy posing. Paul is also in the background doing something important while I take pictures. Looks like, getting our bear bag crap and everything else we left out that night so we can pack it up in our packs.
The first shot of the Chinese Wall. Doesn't look like much but it gets prettier.
Paul posing in front of the wall. I was hoping the background would come out better. Oh well.
The crew! Well part of us anyway. We just just gotten up a set of switch backs and needed a break. So we figured taking some pretty pictures would be a good enough reason to stop!
This is what we call a postcard. A beautiful view from the hike.
Another postcard. This is one of the reasons why we backpack.
Just a couple of lovebirds on a hike.
an actual not selfie picture of Paul and I.
One of my favorite pictures I got of the Chinese Wall. It kind of looks like the cliffs of Moher from this angle. Only it needs ocean at the bottom of the wall instead of grass and trees. It was a pretty awesome view to see valley and hills and then bam, out of nowhere a pretty defined rock wall that stretched for miles.
This was a turn in the wall. It goes straight and straight and then a sharp turn and keeps going. There were multiple sharp turns like this one along the wall.
This is their, "we made it to the top" pose.
I carried a frisbee the whole time with me, and this is the only time I really got to use it! We were too tired every other time we stopped and camped, or too busy. So here we are playing frisbee on top of our first saddle to cross that day.
This was our whole group. 15 people! Crazy. Bottom from left to right, Uncle Tim, Cousin Devin and his wife Nayeli, Aunt Leanna, Cousin Lincy, my dad Therron, Mommy Karina. Top row left to right Cousin Brytt, behind him is cousin Kyler, sister Kessla, Behind her is Cousin in law Levi, then sister Lena, brother Tallus, Paul and me. We are sitting/standing on the great stone table. This is the top where we met some other awesome hikers who were nice enough to take a picture of all of us. the lovely Chinese Wall is in the back ground.
A stop and rest along the way point. We were still looking for water, and thought there might be some close by, but there wasn't so we rested for a few minutes and then kept going. We hiked along the Wall for basically the whole day until we hiked up and over the other side.
More pretty views
Us with the cool back ground. Maybe one day Paul and I will come back and rappel down the Chinese Wall. That would be pretty epic I think!
Another cool view of the wall
And another.
We hit a split in the trail so we all stopped to wait for the rest of the group to make sure we took the correct trail. This is right before a lot more up, up, and up.
This is how Levi rests. Notice the mud on his pants, this is from the day before when it rained. Imagine 3 times the amount and thats how much mud I had on my pants before I washed them!
This is how Brytt rests. He doesn't even have service or internet, but still made sure to check his phone all the time just in case ;)
Kyler, Lincy and Paul layin in the grass
This is at the top of the continental divide. Well a little higher. We took our packs off and scaled a hill to touch the Chinese Wall.
Nena showing off her machoness
My little patch of snow! I really wanted to go play in it, but by the time we were done taking pictures we were nearly frozen with the crazy wind blowing on us.
Me touching the wall.
Tallus thinking he is all bad bum and stuff. With his french braids (that he asked me to do haha) He is too cool to smile for pictures these days. He usually tries to give a smolder look, but it usually fails haha ;)
Kess face being brave at the top
This is a view from the bottom ish of the hill up. Those rocky things in the background are part of the Chinese Wall that we hiked up to touch. The hill was pretty dang steep and didn't have a trail so we sort of made our own.
We didn't have a bear bag picture because usually I put it up without Paul, and he takes it down without me. This time we did it together so I had to document. He didn't care a whole lot.
But I thought it was kind of fun. My cousins put their bag up in the next tree over, but used our trunk to tie theirs up. Look closely at the trunk, the darker colored green string, and see ho much effort they used to zig and zag their string so their bag wouldn't fall. I just laughed when I saw it.
A picture of our quaint little camp site. We had maybe 2 more tents up that weren't in the picture. Mine being one of them. No wonder the deer tripped through our campsite. The tents were so close together and we all had our fly strings staked out. Some of the strings crossed over each other so we had trip wires all set up.
Everyone having breakfast around the fire. The only reason we would have food this close to our camp at our fire is if it was breakfast.
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