First, it was a hard trek. My group managed to do 10 miles to get to our main campsite. That was more than what I’ve usually done in a long while. While getting to the campsite, I missed snacking. Consequently, I was fatiguing myself, so I had to eat dinner slowly. Since I was eating dinner slowly I was exposed to the cold weather a bit more, and I had gotten very cold. It just wasn’t the best opening night to have. So I hopped in my sleeping setup to get to sleep. I believe that I had gotten so worn out from shivering that I feel asleep from exhaustion.
We woke up the next day to move our campsite to another location that would be closer to a side trek that we would do. Along the way, we paused to admire Red Castle. It was a site to see! It very much looked like some sort of fortress. That whole valley reminded me of Zion National Park, because of the lush wet ecosystem.
Is not this a beautiful sight of red castle?
After hiking for a little bit, we set up a camp then we went out to our little side hike. We went off trail and hiked up to a pass in order to view the valleys that surrounded the area. The view was incredible! The original plan was to hike to a peak, but I was running out of water, the hike was getting long, and the weather was starting to turn bad. I did not want to be on a ridge line during bad rainy weather.
We got back to our camp while the storm was starting, and we got into tents in order to be shielded from the cold rain. The rain did stop probably an hour later and we came out to eat. After I was done eating, I returned straight to the tent early enough so that my sleeping equipment could warm up before the weather turned more cold.
So other things to note is: avoiding a moose that was right next to the trail, walking through a mud field, and waking up to the sounds of probably coyotes attacking an elk. Interesting trip!