We woke up while the sky was still filled with the Milky Way on day 3 of our backpack (which was super awesome!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stars!!). We threw on hiking shoes, grabbed a quick granola bar to eat, and were on our way. The hike began with headlamps since it was so dark!
We had to reach Static Peak to see the eclipse by 11:30, so we decided to go into “crush mode.” Each of us worked super hard, and we ended up moving pretty fast along, until we reached the snowbanks. Here, we had to take it slow since we were walking over icy terrain. Luckily, by this time, the sun came up so we didn’t need our headlamps, but we were all slipping and sliding despite perfect vision. I still have battle scars on my knee from falling over the ice!
Luckily, we made it to the top of Static Peak early since we made such good time in the morning. We saw the eclipse (please read about it in one of my previous posts), and then we climbed down the mountain. At that point, we were all super hungry from hours of uphill, so we stopped for lunch. To our left was a beautiful, lake-filled valley straight out of a painting. I couldn’t have asked for a better lunch spot! We then decided to press on, as we had 9 miles of downhill left (we did a total of 13 that day).