105

Trail miles: 25.3

Total: 1544.2

We woke up to beat the heat for it to barely reach 80F. Anyway, my feet felt alright so I tried my best to keep the pace the fast group was setting. I think I like leaving before the sunrise because it’s so beautiful. Maybe I will try doing it again tomorrow. We made it to Porcupine Lake around 9:30am and it was just warm enough to jump in. There was a child’s kayak there with a weight limit of 130lbs. I just made the cutoff. I dumped the water out of the boat and got in. There were two holes built into the boat where the seat was, so I was just sitting in water. Even though I could hear it filling back up with water, I still enjoyed it a lot. Since I was half wet anyway, I jumped in before we started hiking again. It was nice to swim around a bit. The next 5.6 miles to lunch were a bit more of a struggle. My feet started to hurt again so I took a couple breaks. I passed a large group of women backpackers. It’s really nice that they have a group of like minded girls their own age. Not that I don’t love my group back at home but I wish there were more younger women! At lunch I chose not to get back in the water because it was overcast and the shade was cool enough. We sat there for a good while, maybe two hours. I think that’s my new strategy: go as hard as I can hiking so I can finally take some real breaks. When we left the lake, Raechel was in front. Brad, Spare Change, and I followed close behind as she got faster and faster. I was straining to keep up. I knew we would stop soon so I tried hard to stay with them. Come to find out she was only going that fast because she felt pressured that we were all behind her. So we switched the order after the pit toilets. Oh so at the pit toilets some man pitched the door wide ope with his backpack and was pooping for the whole world to see. I stopped Raechel and everyone else from having to see it. I’m hoping to forget that happened as soon as possible. The rest of the miles were a hobble at best. I have no idea how I’m going to keep this going for two more months.