I hit the trail early today so I could maximize my time in town. Today’s destination was Monarch Pass, a high mountain pass with a gift shop and snack bar. The last few days I’ve seen a lot of butterflies. I’m not expert, but they looked like Monarchs.
I hiked pretty hard all morning and caught up with some new hikers. We spent the last climb hiking together and then I took off when they wanted a break. I made it to Monarch Pass around 2 pm, but I had to have a ride to town, luckily, I had one pre-arranged.
While I was hiking a mountain bike stopped and asked if I was going to Salida. He was biking to Salida, but his car was at Monarch Pass. We could help each other out.
He explained where his keys were hidden on his car and we set up a meeting point at the hiker hostel in town.
When I got to the pass, I took his car down to the hostel where he was waiting. He hung out for a bit and it turns out he writes children’s books. He signed one and gave it to me. He’s even spent some time living in Kauai on the Kalalau Trail where Meghan and I went on our honeymoon.
Eventually, my other friends made it to town and we went out to dinner. The hostel is a little outside of town, but they have bikes we can use so we rode to town.
This weekend there’s a bike race, a music festival, and a whitewater festival so it’s pretty packed. Even if we wanted a hotel room, there weren’t any.
We ate dinner and celebrated Feel Good’s birthday (two days ago). The ride back was all uphill and pretty rough.
I’m hoping to hike out tomorrow, but everyone else might have other plans.