Day 89

Trail miles: 21.1

Total: 1131.4

I guess the sadness I was feeling yesterday manifested into real sickness today. Or at least what I thought was a cold. I was slow to get ready and slow to walk, but I felt better after a few miles. I fell behind all morning, partly because I called my mom when I found service to wish her a Happy Birthday! It was definitely worth it. My foot has been hurting me and it’s getting worse. It’s the outside of my left food. Raechel thinks it’s my shoes that are hurting me, because it doesn’t hurt when I wear my crocs. I’ll pull a Cheryl Strayed and wear those until the next REI. It might be because the ridges make the trail slant sideways. Or because my feet are squished in a shoe that’s too narrow. Raechel showed me how to lace my shoes differently as to not put pressure on the outside of my foot. Her and Krista wear there’s that way. We had lunch at a trailhead with pit toilets and we got trail magic from two different people! One girl I was too late for, but Brad saved me a bagel with cream cheese which I am grateful for. Then a couple pulled up and handed out beers and left. He was very friendly and asked our trail names, but it was funny that he was only there to give us beers and leave. I packed mine away for dinner. We climbed up a couple miles to a ridge line overlooking Lake Tahoe. It was stunning! I lost a lot the group again taking pictures and videos. We are camped on the ridge line so it’s somewhat windy and the ground in slanted, but not too bad. At least we get to look forward to more 360 views in the morning! I have to pack out my dinner because I couldn’t eat it. It was Korean food which means it was way too spicy for me. I couldn’t even convince Brad or Raechel to eat the rest of it. Raechel said there was no flavor, only peppers. The bear hang would have gone better if I hadn’t got the line caught on every twig on the ground in the 100 foot radius around the tree. Spare Change had to put his cigarette down to help me. It was a mess. Only for the first dude to walk down the trail and tell me what was wrong with it. I went through too much effort to move it. And he wanted me to hang it over the trail? That’s not happening. I think there is a bee stuck in my vestibule.