Day: 017
Date: Thursday, 23 May 2024
Start: Long Canyon Mountains
Finish: Wagontongue Mountain
Daily Kilometres: 33.6
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 490.4
Weather: Cold early, then warm and sunny, but with a cool wind.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Rehydrated meals
Aches: Dave - very tired and a bit battered and bruised after three falls today; Julie - left knee is still a bit sore.
Highlight: The late afternoon descent from Wagontongue Mountain (~9000’) with expansive views across mountains, forests and grasslands to the east was fantastic and impossible to capture in a photo.
Lowlight: Dave's inability to stay on his feet, perhaps due to fatigue (our hiking was mainly around 8000’ to 9000’), was a downer. He has noticed that Julie occasionally kicks a rock or pine cone off the track, but never the one he trips over.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
Our alarm went off at 5am, but it was cold and we had a shorter day planned so, after a brief discussion, we rolled over and went back to sleep for another hour. It felt very decadent.
When we did get up and leave, around 7am, we were immediately faced with a slow grind uphill to over 9000’ on a forest road, before turning onto single track and going even higher. It was a beautiful morning with great views and peaceful in the forest.
We stopped early for breakfast, around 8:30am, because we had phone reception for the first time in several days and we wanted to sort out some logistics. Firstly, a call to the Pie Town Post Office where the friendly lady agreed to send our food parcel to a hostel in town, since the PO would not be open when we arrive and it's a long weekend. Secondly, to a motel owner in the little town of Reserve, who booked us a room for tomorrow night and agreed to pick us up from the trailhead at 8am tomorrow morning for the 65km drive to Reserve.
With those issues resolved happily, we got on with our day's hiking. After the road walks of yesterday, we had the opposite today, with gnarly single track, many tree blow downs, and steep ascents and descents. All offset by terrific views. We took an alternate track after lunch that followed the floor of two canyons but, although pretty, wasn't as impressive as we had heard.
We ended our day with a long climb up over the shoulder of Wagontongue Mountain and then a beautiful descent with amazing views. We walked until 7pm and about 6km from the trailhead where we will be picked up tomorrow morning and found a nice campsite amongst a copse of pine trees.
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