Rocky Paradise and the Accidental 18

Miles 18.3

Camped at mm 285.5

Sunrise was stunning, and my face was a little swollen from altitude this morning. But my shadow seemed to keep up with me pretty good, and we saw Misty on trail with her husband Bill, and pretty soon we all came across a herd of bucks which seemed unusual and beautiful to me, so that was fun and magical.
The mist rolled over the mountains like an ocean wave that pretended to crash but never got around to it, and the mountains giggled, and the real clouds way up high looked down with disdain.
The trail was shit. It was a Rocky Paradise. A twisted ankle waiting to happen. A nightmare for hiking. We took a bunch of photos to prove it. But pretty soon we were on the top of the planet again with views all around and we gawked for a while and took fantastic photos of each other .
We found a momma cow hollering but all alone, and soon found a young boy cow all alone with a cough. Anji got his ear tag number and reported it.
It was cold and rainy. Then it hailed.
A lot.
When it got around to stopping, we found a stock tank and filled up our water from the spigot. The cows loved Anji and drank from the tank while she filled up her filter. Unafraid.
We saw Mojo and Jillybean while we looked for a campsite, then accidentally climbed up a huge hill but luckily Anji had an eye out and found a good campsite just as darkness set in.
And it was an Accidental 18 miler…