Swimming at Wilderness Falls

The miles are going by quickly now. Well, our daily mileage is still modest, but we have just 56 miles left. I can see the end coming.

The new socks are amazing. The blisters are going away quickly. Sometimes I'm too cheap!  I should have replaced my old socks a few hundred miles ago. The shoe repair was less successful. There are now blisters on top of blisters, and some fill with blood. I'm staying on top of it to drain and prevent infection. I took another shot at trimming the seam, but am not sure it helped any.

Today is just an easy hike down the West Fork of Clear Creek, except that downhill always seems to mean uphill.  A local we run into even refers to the trail "up" to the waterfall, despite it being downstream. The swimming hole at the waterfall is great, crystal clear and 25 feet deep. I take a quick dip and then retreat to the warm rocks to warm up.

We see several pockets of the carnivorous Darlingtonia pitcher plants, pretty amazing things.

The mosquitoes are bad tonight. Not enough Darlingtonia I guess. It is too hot to climb into my sleeping bag, so I put up my tarptent so that I can lay on top of the pad. That's the first time I pitched a shelter other than the night of the hail storm.

13 miles to a junction of West Fork Clear Creek, to mile 304.