Share Your Hike

In my final days in New York, plans began to fall apart for the Bob Marshall Traverse I had been training for all summer. However, I had an amazing friend offer to drive me to the Garden on Tuesday, and come pick me up from the Loj 24 hours later(each drive was 4 hours round trip for him). Since I was hiking alone, I decided I would just power through without camping at JBL. I began hiking from the Garden at 7:30pm on the 26th, and reached the base of Big Slide an hour later. I went up and down and enjoyed a 10:30pm military-style meal kit my friend gave me for dinner. Feeling energized I climbed towards the Great Range where I bagged Lower and Upper Wolfjaw, Armstrong, and Gothics entirely in the dark. This was my first time hiking the Gothics cable and Saddleback cliffs, and I was unlucky enough to hit some slight rain that lasted until I got to Basin. I greatly enjoyed sliding down the cable, and although the cliffs were sketchy, I couldn’t see very far ahead due to the mist and so I strictly followed the blazes and made it down safe. However, going up Basin from that side was just unpleasant. Perhaps I was off trail, but the rock slabs seemed so difficult to climb up, and the rain sapped away my morale. My goal was to sunrise Basin, but I made it ahead of schedule, and the sun rose when I was going down. At this point I learned a valuable lesson about food packing: I put my goldfish and peanut butter sandwiches in the same bag which made the sandwiches crispy and the goldfish soggy for whatever reason. Haystack was my first peak in the daylight, and the clouds cleared enough for some views. There was some rain going up Marcy, but on the summit it was peaceful enough to take a breather. At four corners I took my second long break and changed layers and prepared for the long descent to lake Colden after Skylight. However, there was steady rain for all of Skylight, but then it suddenly got sunny and I dried off. The decline was relaxing, however the ascent up the MacIntyre range was long and arduous. My phone was low on charge(which probably motivated me to keep moving rather than longingly check the gps), but I got to Wright by 4:30. Finally, I made it down to the Loj and soon met my friend to finish Mount Jo. We made it up and down and to the car a little after 7:30.

It was a glorious hike that checked many boxes for me: a 24 hour hike, a 30+ mile hike, 13 peaks in a day, and it finished my second round of the 46!