The plan was to leave town at 8:30. Wrangling a group of 6 people to do that is never easy and we obviously didn’t leave anywhere near then.
We had to finish cleaning up the cabin before we could leave and a few people slept in. No worries, that gave us a bit more time to go to the bakery.
Eventually we did get out of town and made it to the trailhead to start hiking at about 11 am.
The first climb was a big one up to Snow Mesa, a huge flat area. We saw a lot of other hikers out there, many that looked like they were out for the weekend.
We continued on until we met a few more people we knew and took a late lunch break.
Even with the late start, we made it about as far as we wanted. We’re camped on a saddle just before San Luis Peak, the first 14er (summit over 14k feet) that is close to the trail.
Tomorrow we plan to head up the peak and then continue over the top on an old unmaintained trail. It should get us back to the CDT and give us a loooong downhill day.
We can see the mountain from our campsite. Even though I think this is the highest we’ve camped on trail, the temperatures are relatively warm. I’m haven’t been this comfortable in camp since the desert.