Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Miles: 40.18
Elevation gain/loss: 2808’/1759′
After a long night at camp with solid sleep under my tarp (I finally figured out how to pitch it high enough to comfortably sit up inside), I was up at 4:45am and hiking by 5:20am. At the first water source of the morning, Psy showed up as I was filtering water; I’d passed him packing up his campsite a bit earlier. We ended up hiking together for 4-5 miles; chatting with him was kinda nice but also kinda stressful. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist, and after a bit, he said he needed to stop for a bathroom break; I never saw him again.
Today was a lot of open plains/fields and gravel road walking. There were high winds all day, gusting up to 45 MPH; it kept things interesting. I also saw 4 more tarantulas, all slowly going places. There were more water caches with public water. I also found the cache boxes to be excellent for sitting on, and enjoyed a 10-minute break at one of them, having a water-and-Fritos kind of snack.
Later in the day, I met Superwoman and The Brawn section hiking with their 2 dogs, as well as two other hikers going north. They said something about horrible rocks for the next few hours, but honestly, it was just a slightly more rocky gravel road – it made me giggle thinking about how horrified they seemed to be and what they’d think of the White Mountains in NH.
I pushed long after dark, though I started getting chilly from the wind. I ended up stopping at 7:15pm with the most miles I’d ever done while thru-hiking/backpacking. I managed to find a divoted spot in nearby evergreen trees to provide a little wind break. I settled down for the night, using my tarp as a bivy sack for more warmth. There was a little condensation, but it worked out nicely – I was quite snug.
Transcending Mountains 