July 11

End: next to the trail
Daily: 18.9
Total: 1002.1

We made 1000 miles today! It feels huge to me, especially with how hard today was. I have walked one thousand miles.

Today was supposed to be our easy day. We weren't banking on this much snow.

We woke up, looked at the river, and were delighted to see that the water level had fallen at least two feet overnight. We waited for everyone to cross on the log and then forded the second fork of the river. It was about waist high for me and moving fast. These rivers just keep getting harder.

Next we went up and over a pass to find snow, snow and more snow. Our gentle uphill grade through Jack Main Canyon turned into a slog through muddy meadows and up and over and down and up and over and down piles of snow. The snow was still 3-8 feet thick in many places, and we were never above 9,000 feet.

This made us nervous. We would hate to not be able to see Chris's mom and Rich. We wre supposed to do 20 miles and by the time we made it to 13 we were so tired even going the four more miles to get to 17 (and 1000 total!) seemed nearly impossible.

But we cooked dinner and that, the rest, and the motivation to get to 1000 and be able to meet Mr. and Mrs. Rockwood gave us a boost of energy. We ended up going almost 3 miles past 1000! That felt good.

The other thing that felt good was being followed by Boots, Bubs and Grenade because they were tired of getting lost. Apparently we're really good at sniffing out the trail. That bodes well for possibly doing the CDT.

Okay, up and out early so we can get to Sonora Pass as early as possible.