July 27, 2013

July 27, 2013
Rock Spring to Treed Saddle
32.5 miles

With only about 53 miles to get to Anthill Spring where I am meeting up with Optimist and Stopwatch Sunday evening, I decided to sleep in a little and was not worried about getting miles in. Still, it almost feels lazy to start hiking after 7am, so I ended up getting on trail at 6:45.

It was overcast almost all day which was a welcome relief from the sun of the past few days/weeks. The terrain has almost been much more mellow than the previous section from Leadore to Lima, so the miles seem to fly by fairly quickly. A little before noon I ran into two NOBOs Why Not and Rob Steady. We had a nice chat and they gave me some good info on the upcoming water sources. Not too long after seeing them, it started to rain! Nothing crazy, just a light rain without the accompaniment of lightning or thunder.

Later in the day, just as I was passing my high point for the day, I ran into another thru-hiker named Aquaman. He also had some info on water a little further up. He has met Optimist and Stopwatch as well, and we ended up talking about all sorts of things for about two hours. At 7:30pm we parted ways and I descended to a nice little saddle to set up camp for the night.

Tomorrow will be a nice easy day with only about 21 miles to go! I'm looking forward to getting to the spring early and taking a nice long siesta while waiting for Optimist and Stopwatch to show up.