Day 3- Pecos

One or two distant claps of thunder and a few sprinkles in the early hours made for a much more relaxed night. We were up around 7:30 or 8 and had breakfast before packing up our camp. As we only had about 5 miles to go today, no one was in a rush.

We pulled out of camp walking a slightly different trail back for the first mile and a half. This allowed everyone to get a look at Beatty’s Cabin before rejoining the main trail.

The morning clouds cleared off and we had partly cloudy skies for the rest of the day. We traveled along the same path we had hiked in on. Initially climbing to Kennedy overlook and then undulating close to a contour line through forest, small meadows, and burn areas.

We finally broke out of the forest and entered a vast meadow stretching several miles to the junction of the Jacks Creek trail. We had planned to camp there and get water from a nearby stream we saw on our map. Only trouble was that there was no stream there. Scatman found a beautiful aspen grove to camp in, but we were out of water.

Cappuccino and I volunteered to go back along the trail to the last water crossing and fill everyone’s water containers. So she and I had a pleasant walk back about a mile and a half to a couple of tiny streams flowing into the vast meadow. Some cows took interest in our activities and came over to watch us. Luckily we were able to collect 12 liters of water before the got to us and fouled the water. (Livestock grazing is allowed in Wilderness areas.)

We got back to camp and, after Cappy and I set up hammocks, we all had dinner together on some perfect logs. That was followed by watching the aftermath of the sunset play out on a few clouds in the east. When it finally got almost too dark to see we went back through the forest to our camp and hit the sack.

Until tomorrow, Happy Trails!…