So you may ask, what is Slack Packing? This is a well known secret in the thru-hiking world. When you get an opportunity to hike your miles without a pack on your back, oh that is heaven on earth!

Being we are in a hotel for a couple of days, we left our big heavy packs in our room, and hiked with a day pack. My day pack is also my food bag so I left all my food at the hotel room, then packed some water, snacks, first aid kit, rain jacket and my in-reach (just in case). We hit the trail without our heavy packs and got our miles in for the day. So I’m sure you must be wondering how tough could that be? Hiking 14 miles without a heavy pack, easy Peasy. Well that’s what I thought but it still kicked my tush!

So this is what we did today, a tough climb up and a knee knocking descent! The peak was 12482′ which was the High Point of this section. It took us 8 hours, with lots of breaks, many pictures, and more breaks!

This is a bike packer who had to do a lot of pushing today but once at the top, the fun begins. He sailed passed us and we never saw him again. I’m thinking he was drinking a beer while Triple-Z and I were taking in the sights and celebrating our summit!

Now before the thunderstorms come in, we beat feet and got off the mountain back to town, and another ride on the Summit Bus. Colorado does mass transit quite well. The buses are on time, clean and free! We rode back, grabbed some grub and chilled for our last evening in a bed for a week. Tomorrow we will return to the trail with our full packs, loaded with food and continue on.

Just a disclaimer, our next route will be taking us from Cooper Mountain to Twin Lakes and Mt Princeton Hot Springs. The reason I bring this up is T-Mobile is not the prime carrier in these parts and there’s a good chance that I may not be able to load up my tales on the trail. However, I will continue to blog and as soon as I get reception, I’ll be uploading my stories. Thank you all for your love, support and prayers as Triple-Z and I carry on!

Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you. Psalms 143:8