It was hard to get up and going today. As the sun peeked through the trees I willed it to go away and turtled my head into my mummy bag. That only worked for so long.
I had a nice pop tart breakfast (2 packages = around 900 calories) and stepped back onto the trail at 9am. Mr. Fantastic was just getting his breakfast together, so I didn't expect to see him until either lunch or dinner. To my surprise I quickly passed everyone who had set out before me, and slowly made my way up the mountain in our path.
There was a solid shelter with a door (tres fancy) at the top of the mountain, and at 9 miles I was more than ready to break for lunch. Suds greeted me when I arrived, about to continue on his hike. It was good to finally meet him, as we had heard each others names many times.
Bumblebee joined me as I was tidying up, and I decided it was a good day for a nap. A half hour later, when I exited the shelter, I found that my socks had dried in the sun and my muscles had relaxed in my sleep. Just 10 miles left before Jenkins shelter.
The rest of the hike looked easy on the map, but 10 miles is 10 miles. Palm Tree, a guy from Hawaii who had been camping at the same shelters lately, caught up with me and we passed the time talking books. He's a big science fiction fan, and we found plenty of common ground, mostly centering around Douglas Adams.
After my late start and mid-day nap I knew I'd be finishing late today, but my weary body didn't want to help me move along any faster. We finally arrived at 7:30pm, and have rarely been so happy to be done for the day.
No one else from our shelter last night has arrived yet, though there are a few section hikers tented around the grounds. I'm all set for the night, except for the mac and cheese I plan to eat before bed. That I'm saving until the rest of our current group arrives.
Tomorrow I plan to get up early and hike the 12 miles to town. Real lunch is always a great motivator. After resupplying, eating, and charging, we only have another 2 miles to hike to the following shelter. After all of these high mileage days it'll be very nice to just have a 14 miler. It's funny to think that way since it was only a week ago that 14 miles was considered an average day for us.
