High route

Felt good this morning, not counting my shin. My plan for the day was to take the high route and get away from the river to see if my shin splints felt better. I still had 1.5 miles to go to get to the trail junction and ended up crossing the river 7 more time for a total of 110.

The hike up to the high route was tough but easy at the same time. It was 800 ft in a mile but was switch backed and graded for pack animals. It took me about an hour but I made it to the top with some excellent views of the valley below.

The high route was amazing. One of the best trails I've hike in terms of scenery and difficulty. I was up on a Mesa and had almost no hills except to switch Mesas. The entire time I was in this great ponderosa pine forest which was both open and enclosed at the same time. Every once in a while there'd be a medow, a stream, or a view to keep the green tunnel effect at bay.

Once it got over the climb and the effects of the mornings river crossings my shin loosened up and stopped hurting. I definitely feel that once I'm done with the river my shin splints will start to go away.

With that in mind when I had to get down off the high route to switch to the other side of the river I decided to just hike the river. The guys I camped with last night had just reached the trail junction at the same time I did. Considering they are much faster than goes to show how much easier the high route was compared to the crossings. They had crossed the river 62 times in the 12.5 miles between when I left then and rejoined.

I decided since there was another 800+ ft climb and I wouldn't see a river again for a long time that I would hike the remaining 7.5 miles of river. I figured my shin wasn't going to get much worse and at the end of the river was a public camp ground. Since it was cinco de mayo I thought there might be some trail magic. There wasn't so we had to make do with the 3 margaritas I packed out. I wasn't going to make the same mistake as last year and not celebrate on the trail.

The hike to the camp was rough. The first  3 miles had been devastated by the flood and there was no path to speak of. It got better after that as there were pack trails established but by that point I was done. I wasn't sure if I'd make the remaining 4 miles. But the call of trail magic is strong. I pushed on and eventually made it to the campground where to no surprise there was no trail magic. If I'm ever not doing anything on may 5th I'm going to find hikers and give the margaritas and tacos. Truth be told even if there was trail magic I was too wiped out to enjoy it. According to both my step counters I had hiked a marathon, but I only did 22 actual miles.