Day 141, Stemple Pass to above Canyon Creek

When the sun rose this morning, its rays could barely penetrate the smoke and fog in the air. The atmosphere was so thick, the glowing orb was hardly recognizable.

Dave, the owner of High Divide Outfitters, had posted a note on the door saying he would open at 6:30 a.m., and that's what he did this morning. He knows his customers well. They want to buy what they need and return to the trail as quickly as possible.

I wandered the store more than I did any actual shopping, the whole time marveling at Dave's impressive inventory. He must have had several hundred thousand dollars worth of clothing, shoes, backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, stoves, and watches in that tiny space. He also sold a selection of freeze-dried foods, snacks, and essentials like tent stakes and rope.

A hiker who was here a couple of days earlier summed it well in the Guthook app, "You can walk in naked with nothing but your wallet and leave fully clothed, geared up for any season, and do a pretty good resupply at this AWESOME on-trail gear shop." I only needed a fuel canister, so there was no need for me to put that theory to the test.

I ended up also making an impulse purchase, though it was modest. I bought an empty plastic bottle to use as a leakproof container for olive oil, which will boost the calories in my dinners.

Top O' bought some over-mittens to help keep his hands warm on the colder mornings we're beginning to see. We didn't need to buy any food because we intended to drive with Polecat into Lincoln tomorrow.

The time was nearly 8:30 a.m. before we made our way down to Stemple Pass and reconnected with the CDT. El Dorado, Guy Number Five, and Thirteen didn't follow us. They wanted to do some sightseeing. They were heading in a different direction to search for the former site of Ted Kaczynski's cabin.

Fraggles chose not to go with them and left the store a few minutes before we did.

The trail started as a mix of single-track paths and gravel roads. The footpaths were smooth, but the intersections required some care or they could be missed. It was sometimes difficult to see where the trail switched back to a single track after following a road.

I tried to keep my eye on the Guthook app so I wouldn't miss a turn. At one point, I looked up from my phone where I had stopped to check it, and noticed Top O' had scratched a couple of arrows in the gravel. Although I wouldn't have missed this turn, I was still grateful for the extra help.

The sky remained smokey, so whenever a clearing in the trees opened for a view, there wasn't much to see beyond a few miles.

I caught up to Top O' at noon. Polecat was there too. He parked his truck yesterday at Rogers Pass and hiked southbound toward us until he stopped to camp overnight, then he hiked a few more miles this morning to meet us.

We ate lunch together before continuing in the direction Polecat had come from. We caught up to Freebird and Raven a couple of hours later.

Top O' hiked faster than Polecat and me, and we didn't see him for much of the way to Flesher Pass.

When Polecat and I reached the road at the pass, he offered to get water for both of us. He had already been to the spring once and knew where it was.

Soon after he returned, Fraggles arrived at the pass. He came up a different trail and was followed a short time later by Top O'. They were both angry at themselves and the trail because they took the wrong way down to the water. Their route to the spring was much longer than the way Polecat went, and they had a steeper climb on the return. Seeing us sitting there with our water made them even madder about their mistake.

The first 1.8 miles from Flesher Pass included nearly 800 feet of climbing. Then after a short drop, there was another ascent of about 900 feet in 2.1 miles.

The upper reaches of this section were sometimes exposed, making them windy and hot. I began to slow down and fell behind Polecat. Top O' was far ahead of us.

Other than Polecat and the hikers I camped with last night, I only saw one backpacker today, and he was a section hiker going southbound. I also saw a couple of day hikers near Flesher Pass.

Polecat and I stopped once so he could study a large boulder. Geologists tend to do that a lot. We stopped again later when he needed to work on his feet to prevent blisters.

When the time passed 6 p.m., Polecat said he was worn out and ready to stop hiking for the day. Knowing this was about the time we usually stopped for dinner, I told Polecat I wanted to find Top O'. I asked Polecat to wait a couple of minutes and not set up his tent while I walked ahead to look.

I had to go about a quarter of a mile, more than I thought I'd need to walk before I found Top O'. He was preparing dinner in a wooded area halfway up the next climb. The trees were on the other side of an exposed section of the trail.

I then returned to where Polecat had stopped and convinced him Top O's spot was better for us, not just for eating but also for camping. We then made the short climb up the ridge.

Although we prefer to camp at least a mile from where we prepare dinner in grizzly country, we knew this was our best option. The trees protected us from the wind, and beyond them was a long section of exposed trail. Still, we tried to pitch our tents as far away as possible from where we ate and hung our food.

The sun was setting by the time I finished dinner and hung my food.

Today was a day of small, irritating challenges. For me, the difficulty came from the heat. Top O' made the unfortunate mistake of going out of his way to get water. Polecat hiked a little farther than he wanted. All of these things made us tired and a little grumpy.

Nevertheless, we didn't let our bad moods overflow into the way we interacted with each other. We soon returned to our good-natured selves as we set up our tents and ate dinner.

The way we kept our emotions from spilling into our relationships seems like one of the essential skills of successful thru-hiking, though it's something hikers rarely talk about.

You hear them say a hike requires keeping their gear light and being physically prepared. What I saw today reflects an equally valuable trait for a thru-hiker: a positive attitude. Keeping your heart light and your spirits lifted will get you through the rough spots. That's easier to do when you're hiking with friends.

I wonder if Thoreau had anything to say about that. I might know that if I had more patience to penetrate his dense prose.