Yesterday we made it to Denver around 7 p.m. and went to REI to get some gear Seth was missing for his hammock. After making use of their restroom and picking up a few things we probably didn’t need (it’s REI after all) we grabbed 1 last quick bite of non-camp food at a place called Brider. They offer food sensitive options. I had a pretty good French Dip, though they added horse radish to it which isn’t my favorite, but not bad. Then they paired it with the most boring chips in the world that tasted like just burnt potatoes.

Then we drove another hour and by the time it was dark, we tried to find a camp site to setup our hammocks and grab a bit of sleep. Everything was, of course, full, so we drove on another hour to Gore Creek campground and ran into the same issue. It’s different here than in parks in Nebraska where they just have big areas for tent/hammock camping. Here everything had an actual spot so it limits the amount of people who can camp.

We decided to sleep in the car which was really uncomfortable. I’m no stranger to sleeping in a car. I used to do it regularly when driving back and forth to college. Last night however started out warm. We had the sun roof open a crack. I unbuttoned my shirt, took of my socks and was in shorts sleeping in the passenger seat. Seth tucked in in the backseat.

Around 2 a.m. it started to get cold and it kept getting colder down to about 49 outside. I woke Seth up enough to get help closing the sunroof. Then I did my best to use my vest as a blanket and tried to pull the bottoms of my pants up in between dozing. Eventually I woke up enough as it got colder to realize how dumb I was and actually zipped the pant legs on so they wouldn’t fall down and put my vest on properly. Socks and shoes also went on.

Jump forward another hour and we both went diving for our quilts in our bags and then were able to get a good hour or so of sleep. Needless to say, it wasn’t the most restful slumber to start our journey. As cold as it got, I’m wishing I had 1 more blanket with me to go between my hammock and my sleeping pad. I may just need to use my emergency blanket as an extra barrier.

We’re on the road again now headed for Half Moon Campground which is the start of our trip to the top.