Beartooths 2023 - Day 3

We woke up around 6 and lay in the tent for a bit. There hadn’t been rain in the night, but the rain fly was soaked with dew. As we got up we moved our gear into a nearby field that was already getting the morning sun. All of our wet gear was quickly laid out to dry. The rocks weren’t warm yet so the drying went slow. I ended up draping the rain fly across trekking poles to help it dry faster.

For breakfast, I enjoyed a "frosted cookies and crème" pop tart and chased it down with some “orange juice” AKA orange Skittles drink mix.

Things weren’t 100% dry by 9, but we didn’t want to stay any later so we packed things up and headed out. We quickly hit the uphill for the day as we started climbing towards Sundance Pass. We stopped at September Morn Lake to soak our feet in the ice-cold water and eat some food. The lake had great camping spots and we wished we could stay the night there.

After a short bit, we continued the uphill. And up it was. We climbed and climbed and climbed. The pass was at about 11,000 feet and we could feel the elevation in our breathing as we climbed. We climbed in silence, one foot in front of the other, and stopped often for breathing breaks and to take in the views.

Once we hit the summit we took a break and ate our freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches. The view was fantastic looking down into the valley we were going to hike down into.

Down we went on what seemed like 1000 switchbacks. About 3 miles of switchbacks to get down 1,500 feet. It took a long while, and the mountainside was exposed to the sun, but thankfully there was cloud cover.

When we finally reached the bottom, Logan took a cool dip in a water hole while I soaked my feet and calves. The water was ice cold and felt amazing after hiking.

As we headed out some rain clouds rolled in. We felt a couple of drops, but nothing more. We hiked on and looked for a good campsite. After a couple of miles, we found a nice grassy knoll close to the creek where we decided to set up camp.

It was already after five so we set up the tent and got right into dinner mode. For me, it was soy sauce ramen noodles with salmon. It was quite filling, and just right after a long day of hiking. Dinner was followed by Oreos and then another soak in the creek for my feet.

Tired and exhausted, we climbed into the tent to go to bed. Tomorrow we were planning on camping at a lake and we were quite excited about that.

• Watch: 49%
• Phone: started at 56% and got down to 28%, then charged up to 51%
• GPS: 26% charged up to 69%