June 18, 2021
Miles: 31.2 miles
Steps: 73,168
Got to Cottonwood Pass by 7am. Said my goodbyes and thank you to Brad and Becky then took a picture by the pass sign.
Then I was off down the trail. I was a little surprised the first part was downhill as normally at a mountain road pass the trail goes up.
Had a nice 6 miles down to the creek in the woods. Then followed the creek for awhile before taking the junction trail heading up for my first climb of the day. It was wasn’t too bad until about 2 miles from the summit of Lake Ann Pass.
I went pretty hard those last 2 miles as gray clouds were starting to roll in. I made good time and the gray clouds were getting darker so I didn’t hang out long at the top.
I did have to go around the cornice there at the top. It wasn’t as bad the notes said but I took it extra carefully as I brought out my ice ax and micro spikes. I probably didn’t need them but thought I had them so might as well use them.
From there I had about a mile to the next water source which I was hoping I would get there before the storm started.
Got to my lunch spot just in time before it started raining. I found a good tree to rest under along with my umbrella so I stayed pretty dry. Soon a few other hikers showed up to rest as well.
The storm started to pick up with thunder and lightning.
Ended up resting there for about an hour and half. It appeared things had lighten up so I took off the 8 miles downhill. It was a nice hike and got great views of the surrounding mountains. It rained off and on with some thunder.
I then got to the cut off for the uphill to Hope Pass. It was a 2,500 foot ascent over just 2.3 miles so it was really steep. That might had been the hardest climb I’ve done on this trail so far.
I was able to do those 2.3 miles in just a little over an hour. It was raining on me pretty good on the way up but stopped just as I was getting to the top.
Had a good view from the top even though it was cloudy. I could just barley make out Twin Lakes to the north just through the clouds.
I made my way down to the next water source where I had dinner. From there I hiked down the trail looking for a good camping site. I ended up hiking a little longer than planned but finally found one. The rain started to pick up again just as I finished setting up my tent so I hurried to get everything in.