GDT kms: 19.4

We left our lame campsite this morning and began the climb up to the first ridge of the day. It was frustratingly slow – despite the moderate temperatures and easy tread, we only covered 9km by 11am according the the GDT app. Based on this and how long several portions of the trail took yesterday, I’m pretty confident the mileages for this section are pretty inaccurate.

Other than the frustrating pace, it was a really good day. We got lots of great views of Beehive and the other surrounding mountains and the skies were clear for most of the day.

We reached our planned campsite at 4pm and were disappointed to find it had been well-used by horses and campers that left lots of trash. It was early for us to want to stop for the day, but the sky began to rumble and the next spot we knew for sure we’d be about to find spots to camp was in 12km. Given our pace so far in this section, it seemed likely we might not reach there until 8pm or later and walking in the rain didn’t sound like much fun. So we decided to call it a day and quickly ate dinner and got tucked inside our tent just in time for the skies to let loose and the thunders and rain to start.

We’re definitely starting to countdown the days until we reach Peter Lougheed (and hoping their campground has showers!)