What a morning! Today is Replay's BIRTHDAY! Gravitron stopped in to join us for breakfast. While we were packing up camp he wished Replay a very happy birthday. I planned a little birthday activity for the day and he was a great person to kick off the "party."Once we left camp we ran into 2 loggers and their pack of 10 horses. Somehow after leap frogging the pack for about 4 miles I managed to finally pass them once and for all. Before we parted paths I asked them to wish Replay a happy birthday. They were very excited to be included in the celebration.
Free of the horse smells, we arrived at a beautiful sandy beach surrounded by tall pines. I don't know if it was the sound of the crashing waves on the beach or the crystal blue water, but Replay decided it was the perfect spot for a birthday swim. I did manage to catch the production on video.
Wilson Creek was the next destination of the day. Once we got to the shore we scoped out the perfect path of rocks that would keep our feet dry. Replay led the way of course. Just as she was about to cross the creek without a "whoops" she took a very scary spill. Her feet went out from under her and she crashed on top of her pack. Thank goodness she was wearing her pack correctly. It totally broke her fall. Unfortunately in the process she punctured a hole in her sleeping mat. In order to regroup, we opted to stop for lunch a bit early. This gave us a bit of extra time to dry out our wet shoes and socks as well as figured out if anything else in Replay's pack was damaged.
The next part of the day was spent climbing Benson Pass.
The trail wound past huge pine trees, trickling broks, huge boulders, and even a rather large waterfall. Even though the sun was at it's highest point in the sky we protected by the shade of trees. At the top, the landscape suddenly changed. It looked as if we had crossed into New Mexico. The trail was sandier, the trees disappeared, and little shurbs dotted the side of the mountian. We posed for a quick day 22 shot at the top of the pass and refilled our water bottles with water that was running beneath the snow melt. The trail took us down down down until we hit Benson lakes. I swear my knees almost gave out from under me. The gradient was about a 9.1 which in regular people terms in like a staircase.
We were practically running to find a mozzy free zone. They were everywhere. In our eyes, in our noses, clibming into our jackets and even underneath our headnets. Just when I had given up hope that the night would end on a high note I spoted a flat ridge. Off to the right previous hikers had left wood for a fire so we immediately got to work. We threw pine needles, a fire starter, and tons of wood in the fire pit . Once we had a nice blaze going the bugs retreated and we were able to chill out a bit. Mountian House was the perfect birthday dinner. A vegan cookie was the perfect hiker birthday cake substitute.
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