H.A.S. and the Forest Ninjas

Miles 14.7

Camped at mm 71.9

I coughed some more and woke myself up again. Oh God, I’m So Sick. So, So Sick. I coughed and coughed this juicy deep cough and wasn’t sure what to do with myself. My head felt like it was going to implode. Suddenly, I realized it was the altitude. We were camped at close to eleven thousand feet. I had High Altitude Sickness…

Finally, I heard Anji’s alarm go off.

You awake? I asked.

Yeah, I think I need Tylenol, she said. I have a terrible headache.

Me too, I said.

So that’s how the morning started.

The morning was cool, and the trail was easy. We flew along the rolling hills and through deep forests and open terrain and aspen explosions. We blew through grasses. Flowers bowed their heads to us as we glided by.

We were Forest Ninjas.

We stopped at Johnson Gulch to get water. Brain Frog was there. He seems like a nice guy. It’s always good to see him. We visited for a while and then treated our water with tablets and then filtered it. There were cow patties all over the meadow, and we didn’t feel like getting the shits next week, so we double treated just to play it safe. Brain Frog decided just to regular filter and then went on his way.

The vistas were breathtaking. Vistas, vistas everywhere. Range after range of mountains. It hurt my face, it was so beautiful.

We finally made it with only one mad dash across 65mph traffic to get to the campground, and thus, a power cord. It was worth the $24 to stay here so we could power up our power banks. Our garmins and our phones needed to be in working order for the next few days to get us to Breckenridge. And we could write. Because write we must.

Check out Anji’s blog at: anjisadventures.com

We hitched into the tiny town of Jefferson to get a burger, but the burger shop closed. At 5pm. On a Sunday. Because that makes sense.

So we stood out in the freezing cold for far too long, trying to hitch back to the campground. I even did a little dance, but nobody was interested in picking us up. Finally, someone did, though, and we were grateful to them, grateful to see our little tents, and grateful for the warm meal we made ourselves.

And grateful for additional decongestants and tylenol.