Day 78, September 22nd, 45.8km and 858m climb, Turpin Meadow campsite to Lava Mountain Lodge
After an almost rest day 40km yesterday, today's 45km were not quite the same. We had an easy start in the back of the horse float and Brian also cooked us a yummy breakfast of eggs and sausage. Out of the bat we were straight into a 13km, 500m gravel road climb. We saw 5 elk at various places, surprisingly as the hills are teeming with hunters as elk season has just begun.
About half way up, the route turned onto the old Togwotee Road. After about 500m, the impact of last night's rain became obvious and we decided against a mud fest and scarpered back down the track and exited onto the main road. We still had to climb up, so don't worry that we missed out on any of that!
In fact, once the first wee climb was done, we continued up to cross the Divide at Togwotee Pass, elevation 2970m. That is pretty darn high! I should also mention that it was cold and wet for a lot of it although we lucked out again and much of the rain went round us. It was 2 degrees at the top plus wind chill so we didn't hang around but dropped off the saddle to a stunning wee picnic area for some lunch (see the first photo). We were just packing up when it started to snow so thought it best we head down the hill.
We then had a long, cold downhill to Lava Mountain Lodge. We stopped in to warm up and while there the rain arrived in earnest so rather than push on to an informal campsite 5km down the hill in the rain, we chickened out and grabbed a cabin. We had our first showers in 5 days and did a load of laundry but I'm not super impressed with the place, it's over priced, it's 100m to the loos and there is no hot water in the bathroom. So while it's comfortable enough given the weather, I would not recommend the place.
Another big climb tomorrow but the weather is looking good for the next week which will be nice.
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