Day 11 North Fork swan river to horseshoe gulch

Monday July 14, 2014

Mileage: 10 miles

Elevation: 9,900 -11,400 feet

Celebrating our 100 mile mark today! 

Clear skies last night .The cloud formations are beautiful in the full sun and in in the evening sun.  This was the view looking up from our tent.

 We were up early this morning, brisk air and cool breeze in the pine trees above us. Love all of the morning birds that chirp and sing. 

Enjoyed our hot tea while sitting and listening to the sounds of the woods.. In our cozy tent..It's very calming yet exhilarating. On this day 11 of hiking we feel like the ever ready bunny that just keeps on going.

And we are off... To start our morning we are once again greeted by a pretty display of wild flowers.

Alpine sun flower

Talll fringed blue bells

Purple fringe

Giant red paint brush

Butterflies also greeted us along the trail. This was picture 6 out of 23. Zippy was determined.

We began our morning with a steady incline climbing 1,100 feet in 2.5 miles. Yikes! But we did it and felt accomplished. The views boosted our spirits.

After that grueling climb, we began our happy descent down the other side of the enormous mountain. 

We stopped for lunch and had the "brilliant" idea of pulling out our frying pan and stove to fry up our dehydrated Yakisoba noodles. Well, as it turned out....not so brilliant. They turned into mush. But we Hawaii people love to have our Japanese food plus we were starving, so we ate the mush anyway. 

Chef Pippy using our superlight spatula! 

Zippy smiling at the mush. Notice no more shoes? We've actually decided to walk the trail barefoot! Our shoes are too heavy. Just kidding. 

Pippy had about 10 oz left of water, but she was okay as there was "water" two miles down the trail. 

And then this is what happened. We arrived at the so-called water stream. Couldn't find it. Why? Because there was no water stream! Pippy almost hyperventilated with worry, but Zippy calmed her down with the thought that we will be at water in two more miles and reminded her that we are not in the Safari desert.

 But come to find out, Zippy herself was secretly having a no-water anxiety attack as well, and she did not divulge it. So, the two deflated water bag girls booked it with no conversation for the next 2.5 miles, Zippy was traveling as fast as her little legs could go!!! Just a visual note, no trees shading the trail and hot afternoon sun beaming down. 

Dehydration trail 

And with every situation good or bad, there's always an end. The trail traversed down into a gulch and we could see a small stream with two other people retrieving water. They were chatty, asking questions, laughing, drinking their water, and all we wanted to do was dive into the two inch Barbie-sized water stream and open our mouths. Instead, we calmly sat down, answered their questions, and pumped our water politely. We must've drank about 100 ounces of water each! We were like little shriveled up weeds that turned into flowers! 

Rehydration trail! 

We climbed the last two hundred feet with our water for the night to our campground spot. It wasn't the prettiest sight as it was in broken down trees situated right on a bluff and by a popular mountain bike/extreme runner trail. 

None the less, we clumsily and exhaustedly popped up our tent and superman dove into our tent just to relax and lay flat. Thanks for the tent because there's these Godzilla flies that are so bad! They stick to you, even when you say bad names to them like "bad fly!" or "shoo fly"! After our little rest, we ate dinner, looked for a place to pee behind a little stick, and slept. 

4 more miles until Breckenridge!