Today marked a full two months since I started from the Southern Terminus in Campo. It’s actually kinda hard to believe it had been such a long time, and yet such a short time too. While it feels like I’ve only just got here, it also feels like a lifetime has passed as well. As I become acclimated to the altitude, my daily mileage is coming back too. Today I covered 14.5 miles, 23.3 km and ended up setting camp just before Cottonwood Pass at 11 099 ft, 3383 m altitude.

The first couple of hours on trail today were on wide, flat trail, slight descent in parts. I was walking through wind blasted pine forest, following the exposed ridge along its western side. The air was cold, dry, and thin. Wind gusts had a short, sharp tone to them which only seems to happen up high. The air had me feeling excited, the same type of energy I’d feel whenever I was skiing at home, not anxious, but eager to move forward and see more.

After a couple of hours, the trail had definitely started descending gently. The trees were still sparse, with lots of windfall around, but the trunks were straighter and branches longer. At first I was wearing long thermals top and bottom, ski gloves, and wool beanie with flap ears. As I descended I swapped ski gloves for moto-x gloves, then the beanie for a regular cap, finally I had to lose the thermal top from under my hoodie.

The air remained crisp and cool, and the trail began to climb again about halfway through the day. This is usually when fatigue starts to kick in, legs get a bit sore and feet start to ache, shoulders too. I still felt the exciting mountain energy though, and I was able to climb fast in the cool air without heat holding me back. I reached a great lookout and I could see towards where I’m headed. There were some fairly heavy looking clouds out there, which I hoped weren’t for me.

The last section of trail wrapped around the ridge to the south and west of Round Valley and Horseshoe Meadow. There are tails leading down to the Cottonwood Lakes campground, which has access to Lone Pine. My plan is to camp just before Cottonwood Pass and take that trail down to the Cottonwood Lakes campground tomorrow. Hopefully I can get to Lone Pine for resupply, before coming back up for Mt Whitney and Forester Pass later this week.