Today was a good day! We did a quick grocery/gas station restock in the morning (I experienced my first ever Subway breakfast sandwich and it was.. fine) then set out for our enormous climb up to the route’s highest point. The first miles were easy pavement and the grade steepened when we hit gravel but it never got truly bad. The map mentioned this as possibly the toughest climb on the route, and we just gotta say, we’ve seen worse. It was just a ‘grind it out’ situation, and after a few hours we were enjoying summit snacks at 11,910 ft. We continued up high for a while, passing the bleak-looking mine-cleanup superfund site at Summitville and then dropping into some stunning alpine meadows. The descent took us past distinctive red mountains (due to iron in the rock, as explained by a sign) and down to a river crossing, then another brief climb back up to Platoro. We got pizza for dinner and Amish hand pies for dessert (apparently a regional thing) and then cruised 10 more miles down the beautiful Conejo River valley to a dispersed camp spot. We managed to get our tents up before a small evening storm blew over- perhaps our tides with the weather are turning.