Thursday, August 05, 2004
The Centennial Mountains Are Lovely
08/05/04
Tonight, through my site selection, it feels like I'm sleeping on several large hard grapefruit resting on steps. Every place here, and near here, is unsuitable, so here I am.
But I want to tell you about last night.
I was sleeping out in this great spot. The cloudless sky offered a dizzying view of the Milky Way as I drifted off.
At some point during the night, or more accurately, early morning, a bright flash and a loud noise woke me up. A lightning storm in the distance was flashing like a child with a camera trying to take a flash photo of a mosquito: Here, then there, this way then that.
The storm or storms wrapped halfway around us, so it was quite exciting.
Rain on my bag woke me later. It didn't seem like much, so I went back to sleep. A bit later, a bit more rain awakened me again. Apple Pie called over to me, asking if I was awake. Soon, I was in her tent. Dawn was on its way and there wasn't much rain after I was inside. Still, it was a cool storm.
Apple Pie and I must both have needed sleep, not awaking until 7:15. We got out of camp an hour later.
We hiked up to Pete's Creek Divide for lunch with cows, who watched us through a fence for all of lunch.
awful trail
Today the trail, took us through chest high delphinium, a wonderful tall stalk
of flowers, usually in the blue range, and lots of other really great wildflowers.
At some point today, I was able to look down a river basin into the flatness.
Rising up on the other side was the Tetons! What a great view of this range. Very cool.
