July 4th.
Last night there was a distressing call from the woods. It sounded like a creature met its end. It made me realize how close to the trail I had camped. In a sick way, I hoped the poor creature was quite filling.
After some early blowdowns, the hiking quickly changed to high grass meadows. It is great to be able to see the trail stretch way out ahead and to be able to look down valleys and across at other mountains.
I hiked with Adam and Denali most of the morning. It was a good challenge to keep up wits them. AfteR lunch, I left ahead of them. According to both my maps, I took the correct turn. According to reality, I went to bacpacker’s hell. It was blowdowns, marshes, rocks, and bugs. When I pulled up the map on my phone, it assured me I was on course.
I eventually gave up and decided to angle downhill. I eventually found the correct, new trail. However, before that, I was able to see my first badger in nature.
Today I saw lots of animals: elk, deer, and the badger. Late in the day, I saw a mother Elk and her calf. Also, on a side trip to get water, I saw what I believe were wolves. At first I thought they were coyotes, but the way they walked and then ran indicated wolf.
I was pretty beat by the end of the day. Still, got some fireworks in the form of sunset.
backpacking over the hill 