Day 2

Waking up Saturday morning, everyone was moving a bit more slowly than we had the day before. Plateau Mountain was next on the list and we'd heard from other hikers on the trail that it was a beast. It did offer a few miles of flat ground once you reached the peak though! There was another spring just under a mile onto the trail so we stopped to fill up on water.

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The process of filtering spring water can be a bit slow so we had plenty of time waiting until everyone was full. It was clear that my two hiking partners were in much worse shape than I was and morale was low. Little was said as we started climbing again, we just kept trudging forward eagerly awaiting the terrain to level out.

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Once we reached the top, the mood of the group changed drastically. We found ourselves on a narrow trail lined with pine trees. There was something almost mystical about the way the mist hung in the air as we slowly hiked down the trail. At almost 4,000ft we stopped at a few of the scenic outlooks to watch the clouds blowing through the surrounding valleys.