I was woken at 3 am by something bumping into my head through the tent wall. I couldn’t hear anything once I took my earplugs out and figured it must have been something small, but boy did it scare me and it took me a while to get back to sleep. When I set off in the morning, I saw a few hares (or maybe rabbits?) and figured it might have been one of them.

The trail was ATV track most of the morning through forest with very little views.

I came across this rustic bridge early on in the day.

Then after meandering slowly upwards through a valley, it was a bit of a climb up to a saddle and then the main event of the day, Tornado pass. It was very steep and mostly scree.

I met two sobo hikers coming down as I was halfway way up so they took a pic of me. They didn’t have a proper map with them so I showed them roughly where to go and how far it would be to the campsites.

Shortly after meeting them, I took a food break and enjoyed the views while I ate although it was windy and my damp feet started to get cold.

I quickly made up to the pass after lunch, but didn’t dally there as it was very windy. I was relieved to see that the descent was not in scree.

I see startled a goat on my way down and then saw about 20 of them nearby.

I took a break at the next campsite but it was too early to stop and it was threatening to rain, so I carried on. It was nice to be on hiking trail most of the afternoon and there were these little bridges installed over the creeks.

It was great to be able to let my feet dry out a bit. I arrived at the next campsite just after 5 pm and decided to stop since the next one is over 10 km away. It’s a nice site with some precut firewood but it’s so windy and very chilly this evening. It feels like a cold front is coming through, but hopefully the wind will die down in the evening. Luke showed up a bit later so it looks like I’ll have some company again tonight.