July 24, 2013

Coyote Creek Jct to creeklet 31.8 from I-15

38.5 miles

Wow, what a day. I woke up without an alarm at 5:45am and started stirring a bit later. After the usual morning routine I hit the trail at 6:45. Almost immediately I ended up going the wrong direction and had to pull out the GPS to get back in track. It's not that it was a difficult section so much that I was still half asleep and my legs were loudly asking me what all the early walking was about. They must have thought they were going to get a rest after a 33 miles day, but no such luck. I managed to get off trail a couple more times during the day, but both times I knew which way I needed to go to get back on track and the minor detours didn't overtly affect the hiking of the day. 

About 18 miles in to the day I ran into a NOBO section hiker named Peanut Eater. He hiked the first 1700 miles or so a coupe years ago and then got sick and couldn't finish the hike so this year he picked up where he left off somewhere in the Wind River Range from the sounds of it. He also let me know that Smiles, Train, and Bert were ahead of me somewhere so I am looking forward to catching up with them sometime tomorrow. A couple hours later, and 6 miles down the trail, I ran into the first NOBO thru-hiker I've seen on trail, named Ross. We chatted briefly about how the hike thus far has been for each of us before moving on in opposite directions. 

Another few miles down the trail I was bonking hard. I was hoping to get a few more miles to the next water before stopping, but my body decided otherwise. I spent the next 10 minutes shoveling peanut butter filled pretzels into my mouth as fast as I could chew them up enough not to choke. Then a few big slugs of water and I was feeling like a new man. That fueled me until getting to the next viable water source where I then proceeded to cook up a big pot of chili-mac. Then it was just a few after dinner miles to find a good place to camp. 

I'm pretty sure this is the most tired I have been after a day of hiking to date on the CDT. I guess it makes sense because it was my highest mileage so far...

Time to eat some more food and then pass out. One more 32 mile day to the pass! Then I am definitely going to slow things down... Well, maybe I'll drop it to 30/day.  :)