I slept well, and decided to tackle the day with gusto. I cruised up the road the past few miles to Rollins Pass, and climbed the hump of a mountain before my last 3 miles of ridgewalking for a while.

The flowers carpeted EVERYTHING! It was really beautiful. I saw elk grazing, and the day was warm, pretty freaking amazing.

I started what would be a long downhill into the trees. It’s so nice to hike in trees again! And as I expected, the mosquitos are a bit more aggressive down low, I walked a bit with my bug condom, but found they weren’t bad enough to warrant that.

Lots of marshes and water, I didn’t see any moose, but this is prime territory.

Finally I made it down to Monarch Lake and was excited for the prospect of a store that sold ice cream! But when I made it to the spot, I was told it was closed. Crushed.

I kept walking and ended up getting dumped on with rain and hail during a storm as I was hiking a ridge above Granby Lake.

I got soaked, and pushed on through a few more miles, and what do you know, that makes 30 for today. I’ll have 8 into Grand Lake tomorrow morning and will get to hang out with my Aunt Barbara for the day!