Day 91

Trail miles: 18.5

Total: 1172.3

I knew I could take it easy today because we weren’t doing more than 18 miles so Lifeguard can catch up to us. Brad called it “a recovery day.” So that’s what my life has become. But he also called our 22 mile day yesterday a “nero” so I wouldn’t take his word for it. Also, today was mostly uphill so I’m thankful for a shorter day. A few miles in we came up to a tunnel under the highway that was basically a creek. It was cold and long and went up to my knees in some areas. I took a break on a rock halfway through to warm up my toes. In the second tunnel, there were logs in the water you could barely see so I was just stepping over them blind. I was just praying that a snake wasn’t living in the water. We were treated to a rest area right off trail shortly after. That’s where I found out some people just crossed the highway instead of going through the tunnel! No way was that water more dangerous than sprinting across 6 lanes of traffic. I needed an ice bath for my foot anyway, so it worked out. I jumped on a video chat with my Grandpa, sister, and mom for my Grandpa’s birthday! It’s nice we get service at the top of most hills now. Almost makes it worth it. I was able to take them all with me through the video chat on my next mile of hiking until I lost service. Then I took lunch alone because I couldn’t make the mileage before I was too hungry. These dang hill, man. Actually I’m slow regardless. I listened to a podcast about thru hiker nutrition. It was very informative and nice that it was specific to what I’m doing right now. Then my hip and hamstring started to hurt so I hobbled the rest of the way down the hill to camp. It sounds like skipping the burn section might be the best idea if people have to wear masks through it. But I don’t know who we are getting this information from.