Today’s Miles: 8.2
Trip Miles: 31.90
High 78, low 56, sunny, breezy, dry
Up at 7:20. Probably got 5 hours of sleep. Had a waffle and Justin’s nut butter for breakfast. Out of camp at 8:55. Hiked with a nice guy from NC named Michael. He is 50 and recently laid off. Starts a new job first week in September. Moving at my pace.
Body is sore; any blister is bugging me.
Made Woody Gap at noon for my first trail magic! Nice older couple who thru-hiked several years ago. Got a hotdog and a soda. We are not in a hurry today, so we hung out and chatted with people until 2:00. Ran into a father and two teenage sons who are thru-hiking. Saw them yesterday too. Dad is a super fit ex-Army Ranger. I swear this guy is carrying 45 plus pounds of gear like it was nothing. Splitting the load to lighten things up for his sons. Nice family. Had full bars of cell, so I called Dana and booked a cabin at Neel Gap for two nights. Decided to take a zero day early as my body will need it.
Could not find a hostel for tonight (last minute), but did push my reservation for Around the Bend Hostel from April 19 to 20! That still won’t work. Will need to shuttle there or push it yet another day to the 21st.
Took time to charge up my electronics. Chatted with Randi and Debbie before we headed out at 2:00. They are going to a hostel tonight, but we should run into them tomorrow. Was hard to get moving again. The Vortex was sucking us in!
Purple shirt dude from day 1, whose real name is Eric, joined us leaving Woody Gap. We plodded north several miles and reached a small stream .1 miles before our destination for today. We all chilled our feet in the stream. Super cold water, but wonderful. I took the opportunity to rinse out my shirt after 3 days. I had so much salt crusted on my shirt that Eric thought it was covered in sun tan lotion. We hung out at the stream for half an hour, then moved on to camp.
Got to Lance Creek Restoration area at 5:30. The 4 tent pads were full, so we walked about 300 yards down an old logging road and set up camp on the road. Good, quiet, shady spot as the road was flat and a stream was about 30 feet away. Set up camp, got water, and did my first PCT bear hang since there is no bear box/cables nor privy here. Nailed the bear hang on the first attempt!
My original plan had been to hike all the way over Blood Mountain and reach Neel Gap today. That would have been another 8 miles, and Blood Mountain is nasty. Realized early today that plan was just insane. That meant I was out of dinner food. Not a crisis as I had two leftover lunches with me and plenty of snack foods, but Mike had a spare Mountain House spaghetti meal, and I borrowed that from him.
Had dinner about 6:00, hung out and talked till 8:00. In bed early as we want to get over Blood Mountain before it gets too hot tomorrow.
Side note…almost everybody around me is struggling a bit with the sun. Wear in long sleeves and/or sun hoodies. Hot! Thankfully, Dana and I just got a good base tan in Jamaica. I’m bronzing up nicely and not worried about sun burn.
Technical Notes
Battery 1 ran out, switched to battery 2.
- iPhone 50%
- Watch 23%
- iPad 80%
- Headphones 60%
- Stinger waffle 150
- Justin’s nut butter 200
- Trail mix 270
- Hotdog 151
- Bread 79
- Soda 160
- Mountain House spaghetti 460
- Fritos 320
- Water 6 liters
- Miles 9.92
- Time 8:00
- Elevation gain 2000
- Calories consumed 1690
- Calories burned 6000
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