Waking up in the freezing get cold was brutal. It had dropped so much so quickly that none of us were prepared. The first thing on my mind easy getting the fire restarted. Walking back out to the road for some birch I happened to turn right and low and behold a moose. Just as I made eye contact with the large bull moose, he turned on a dime and trodden away. His gangly limbs somehow propelling him down the road, awkwardly. He wasn’t a full size moose, yet was still fairly large. I yelled for the others to come see and just as he turned of for the woods they came behind. Flailing fully dressed in a quick trot, and Earthling in tow behind.  She was wrapped in her sleeping bag and liner like a mummy as she tried to keep from dragging her stuff.

They followed the most for a while, as I gathered wood and supplies for the fire.  The large moose would later pass within feet of me as I stoked the fire on their return. We had two big mountains to climb that day and we needed to get going. It was just way too cold to do anything though.  The three of us sat around the fire for quite sometime, until after ten that morning soaking up its warmth. The first part of our climb out was steep and we’ll maintained. The countless hours put into the trail could be seen by all the steps and we’ll groomed foot holds. This allowed us to navigate it safely but not swiftly, we were all burdened by our pack weights from resupply, especially Earthling. She fell behind early on and was no where to be seen as I passed the only view up Old Blue Mountain. The fall colors beginning to show, hinted at the wonder we would see in a week or so.

By the time we reached the steam on the other side of the mountain most of the day had gone by and we were all tired. Waiting for Earthling to arrive, Flailing and I sat and refilled our water. He had been ahead most of the day and continued as she came in rehydrate and we all left. We walked for another hour or so to an old campsite at an unknown mile marker. Making a fire again to cook we sat around it for warmth. The downside to not having fuel was having to make fires, the upside we were warm usually. Taking so much time to cook and get war again, we decided to go to the shelter on the other side of Bemis. This venture would take us right into dusk.  Our tired and worn bodies being carried into camp just as the sun went down. Earthling made a fire with our help and we ate, I went to bed before the others and hoped to sleep.