GDT Day 19: Sunshine

Sunday, July 21st, 2024, 0600-1800
Howard Douglas Campground to Ball Pass Junction camp, mm 285
17.5 miles, Gain: 3130′, Loss: 4270′, elevation 6380′

I was up early to hike 3.5 miles to the  Sunshine ski lodge, eager to maximize my Wi-Fi and real-food-eating time. It had been over 10 days since I had a connection to anything other than texts from my ZOLEO satellite messenger. A lot of big news was coming from the US…even our Canadian friends were talking about it. But I was kind of glad to be so isolated, truth be told.

The sunrise over the mountains and meadows was well worth the effort of packing so early. Even the mosquitos were still asleep, so it was a win-win in every respect. The day started off relatively free of smoke, too.

Very quickly I came to the side trail, leading to the resort. Suddenly there were many ski slope signs and information boards. I stopped to read a few. I made it to the lodge by 7:30, just in time for the cafe to open. Vince and Georgie and I sat down to charge, drink coffee and suck up WiFi. Sadly we learned that a fire had closed much of the next section (D) and that there were more fires threatening the Jasper area. Fortunately it was a worry we could put off until we got to Golden in 4 days.

After breakfast, and second breakfast, we moved to the tavern for lunch. Woody and Jan joined us. The food was ok, nothing special, but it was nice to eat some real food. I especially enjoyed a salad. We lingered for a bit longer, desperate to catch up on phone stuff. I was already more than a week behind on my blog, no surprise. Between the lack of cell service, the social nature of the trail, and lots of hard hiking days, I hadn’t found much time to write. It would take months to catch up.

We set off again around 1 pm, later than I had hoped for but still with plenty of time to make it to our campsite. There were tons of people on the trail. Many were day hikers but also quite a few overnighters that were heading for Egypt Lake… another very popular campsite. We hadn’t been able to get permits for there.

I could see why it was such a popular area. The meadows held the most stunning plentitude and variety of wildflowers that I had ever seen. Whole hillsides were turned yellow or confetti colors by the flowers. I doubted that I’d ever see anything that matched or exceeded such a wildflower display again.

We climbed over 2 minor passes and slid past the campground. We didn’t exactly stop to survey it, but there seemed to be 20 or more tent pads. I was glad we were headed for a smaller site (just 7 tent pads). As such, the crowds of hikers disappeared. Seemingly we were back on a GDT-special route. We climbed another pass (Whistling) and descended towards Haiduk lake. It was a very pleasant afternoon of relatively easy hiking and spectacular views. The campsite was pretty nice too, quiet with the roar of the stream nearby. There were 2 tents already there but the occupants were seemingly already asleep. We had an interesting dinner in which we tried to one-up each other in the creativity of our wrap ingredients. Jan won handedly, followed by Vince. I came in a very distant 3rd, but we all had a good laugh over things. I went I bed very happy and looking forward to more.