Day 106: Tight Muscles and A New Blister

October 11th, 2024

Mile Marker: 2415.3

Miles Hiked: 29

I woke up around 6:15 when Aster started getting ready. I felt tired and didn’t want to get up but I knew we had many miles to do, watching the sun come up was also a good motivator.

My body felt tight and heavy as I started to get around, still getting used to thru hiking again. I eventually rolled out around 7:20, the last one to leave camp. Every hiker has their own routine for getting ready for the day and night. Journey and I typically have relaxed, slow mornings but this crew gets up early and gets out quick. I felt like I needed to buckle up.

It was a beautiful sunrise and I instantly felt a pang of missing Journey as I walked alone, wishing he could be with me. It was day two being back and it already felt like I had been away way longer. I pushed back the tears, I wasn’t ready for a big pity party yet.

I continued on and came across Aster and Whatever pretty quickly. Aster and I spent the next 5 or so miles hiking together to the next water source. It was fun having girl talk and getting to know each other more.

When we arrived at the water source, Twilight was already there and we discovered that the spigot was not working or flowing like the previous comment two days ago said it was.

Crap.

We tried multiple different options to get water to flow out with no luck. We had to get water from the trough and be done with it, we had no other option. A previous comment said they saw a dead mouse in it, but we didn’t see one so we figured it was fine and scooped away. 🫣

I pulled 4 liters as I felt my inner Journey come out. He always pulled more water than was probably needed, just in case. We had 15 miles to go during the heat of the day and a lunch break.

I walked a little with Twilight then majority by myself, taking in the neat natural formations and views. What a beautiful place.

I eventually stopped under a tree with around 8 more miles left to the next water source and waited for the others to arrive. We decided to go ahead and eat our lunch.

I was in need of a break, it was getting so hot out. We all curled under the tree and ate. After a shorter lunch break we continued on for another 4 miles before breaking again.

We started to get into an area with minimal trees and felt nervous we weren’t going to find another before we made it to the next water. Thankfully we came across one all by its lonesome that provided enough shade for us all. We didn’t stay here long at all and continued on another 4 to the next water source.

This was another cow trough but looked better than the previous one. While here I also noticed my blister doubled in size. Dang it. This was totally my fault since I was lazy and didn’t check it earlier. I popped the blister, cleaned it up, and put some tape on it to prevent rubbing. I’m hoping it doesn’t get too much worse.

We then had a 2ish mile climb that felt incredibly hard. We were all carrying 3 liters of water and our packs felt so heavy. I tried to keep a good pace but goodness was I just so dang tired.

We all took a short break midway up to drink water and catch our breaths and caught a glance of the view behind us. I was so excited to have reached the top.

Then we had flat easy trail that I was able to keep a good pace. The sun set and we hiked into the dark together, refraining from turning on our headlamps as long as we could until we started tripping on rocks.

We made it in around 7:30 and found a spot for all of us to cowboy camp close together.

It’s quite cooler tonight which I’m grateful for to sleep in.

Long long day and I’m so glad to be laying down.

Night Night.

Iz and Oz