I turn off my alarm that sounds at 6am, it’s too cold to get up at 6am. I shake the snow off my tent and roll over.

About half an hour later I hear Mountain Spice stir and slowly rouse myself to make some coffee. Packing up is going to suck, and it does, but soon we are hiking and the storm from the day before has turned the world white and glorious.

The sun and light does things to the terrain I haven’t seen before, and once our hands and feet get the feeling back from the cold we actually enjoy the snowy walk, we revel in it! The world is beautiful! The cold makes for fantastic hiking!

As most of our gear is still wet, we decided to walk an alternate into Lincoln and pass near by where the unibomber had his cabin…is there something special about these mountains that drive people to madness?

Regardless we are flying down the dirt road and ignoring the pain and pounding in our feet, make it to Lincoln in the late afternoon, just in time to grab a second lunch at the Bootlegger, and check into the Lincoln Hotel for what may be the last night in a hotel on this trail!

We are so close I can taste it!

We hang out with Delightful, G, Funk, OD, Picker & Sam, drinking beers and talking about what we will do when we get home…so close!!