Day 92

Trail miles: 23.1

Total: 1195.4

I was up and out of camp at 5:00am to get a head start on our town day. I was trying to keep moving, but the sunrise was so distracting and I kept taking photos. I saw the speedy group by the time I took my first break around 7 miles in where I filled up water. Then I saw them again a little after where they were filling up water. And then again when we met for lunch at the top of our last big hill. By that time, we were 15 miles in, which meant 8 left, and mostly downhill. I was worried about my foot, but it held up pretty well. My quads started tightening up toward the bottom of the hill. And I started having stomach issues because I refused to dig another cat hole. I’m starting to get used to days where I’m hiking alone the whole time. It’s not so bad. When I am feeling especially tired, I’ll turn on a podcast. Or when I’m feeling unmotivated, I’ll listen to some music. I try to save that for the worst parts of the day so I can save my headphone batteries and get some time of quiet. The mornings are really good for that. The water sources are spacing out a bit more so we have to be mindful of how much water we are carrying again. It’s not bad though. I’d honestly prefer it over having to worry about water crossings. Krista, Lifeguard, and I made it to the highway around 4:00pm and got a hitch from a couple taking water meter readings near the parking lot. The town is made up of a general store, one restaurant that closes at 3:00pm, a post office, and a church. The general store actually served some pretty spectacular food for being a general store. Brads tacos looked like they were from a fancy restaurant. I couldn’t even finish my deli sandwich. Then the moment Krista’s been waiting for: she found a whole band set and she got to have a jam session with another hiker. She was so good on the drums! We will be back again tomorrow for more when she won’t wake the neighborhood. The only notable thing about dinner was that we had to walk a sketch windy road on the side of a cliff to get to the restaurant. Now we are sleeping in someone’s overgrown driveway with a bunch of other hikers. And the driveway ate one of my tent stakes. It broke in half and I still don’t know where the bottom half went. Must be still in the ground. A sacrifice to the trail angel Gods.