I wake early and am treated to a stupendous sunrise. Gentle bruises bloom across the sky underlined with softest pinks and yellows. The sky beneath the clouds a blanket of evolving blue on which the sun paints its colors. I sit in my bag for a long while and watch as the sky comes alive around me even as my fellow campers stay snuggled in their tents.
Soon Keith wakes and shortly after we are working our way down the trail. When we chose to take another zero before the start of our southern section of this hike it was with the knowledge that we would need to do bigger miles with greater elevation again each day in order to avoid the next storm rolling in in just a few days.
Each uphill becomes a matter of numbers: gain, distance, steps. I count my steps one through 50 and then allow myself a small rest. One through 50 and then another small rest. My legs are trashed from our big mileage, big elevation gain day yesterday but as is one of my favorite things about backpacking the only out most often is through. And so I keep stepping, keep counting, each uphill a task, each downhill or even flat stretch a blessed relief.
Still, I am proud of myself for being out here doing the thing. At the beginning of the summer on the Kungsleden I struggled to get even 10 mile days on relatively flat terrain. Today I am managing 17-20 mile days with 2,000+ feet of elevation gain. I am doing the thing and even if it is slow I am managing one step in front of the other.
That night when we roll into camp it is on legs burning with fatigue and a lightness in my heart.
Only two days until we reach the southern coast.