Marmot pass day 1

We were out the door by about 7:30 and hit McDonald’s for a high calorie breakfast. Both dogs were excited but unsure what was going on as well. 

The roommates little dog dog got too excited/nervous and barfed a little. So our start was cleaning

Then we were off on the 6 hours drive!

It took us about 5 hours to get to the area then another hour to go the 15 miles on dirt/gravel/pot whole road to the trailhead. 

And we are off!!!!

The first 3.5 miles of the trail were beautiful!!

Had nice rolling hills and crossed the water several times.

There were some interesting water crossings

Artemis was a little hesitant of the flowing water in the beginning then she got a little more comfortable 

We had some fun kookie moments

So after those nice 3.5 miles we took a little break, had some pop tarts and snacks, love trail food, and drank some water and Gatorade. Poor Carra got stung by a bee. Then we headed out to do another 3.5 miles to the top……except these 3.5 miles were straight up! 1500 feet in about 2.5 miles. 

I was pretty slow on the uphill so she would stop and wait for me to catch up. She is sooooo freaking cute and sweet!!! Or she would turn around and come find me. 

I was dying a little. 

I stopped and took a break about 1 mile from out stopping point because the direction milage was a little off and I was dying!!

These block got me through the last mile. 

She settled in behind me for a little rest behind me

We slugged it the last mile and settled in. 

Got our tent set up

Nice little view from out campsite 

Can you find Artemis?

Someone passed out really quickly 

We ate, listened to a little bit of a book on tape and tried to sleep

It was a loooong night. I finally dozed off around 9:30 then at 10:30 Artemis got up from our feet where she at been sleeping and bounded up toward me shaking. The poor thing was freezing. I got her halfway in my sleeping bag and cuddled up. She warmed up and I turned my sleeping bag into a blanket for us. She warmed up got comfy and fell asleep. But every hour or 2 either she would wake up and move around or part of my arm would go numb cause I was laying funky trying to keep her warm. Needless to say I didn’t sleep well. Of course once I was awake it took me another hour to fall back asleep. 

I got 4-5 hours of sleep. 

But overall it was a good day.