October 29th, 2024
Mile Marker: 2948.4
Miles Hiked: 28
We woke up earlier this morning around 6 AM in hopes to get out before the heat and get a head start on our 27 mile day.
We started hiking in the dark, just as the sky was starting to change colors. I just loved this.
We followed the trail down a gravel road and before we knew it, we were off trail. This continued to happen on repeat for the next few miles. I tried not to get frustrated but I hated to continuously have my phone out to check where to go, I just wanted to hike and watch the sunset.
I also didn’t sleep well last night so I told Aster that I didn’t have the bandwidth to navigate and lead all day and we decided we would take turns. It was perfect. When I followed her I could zone out and let my thoughts wonder.
I thought about this being my triple crown and what it meant. Parts of me feel like I am saying bye to thru hiking. I’ve done the big three and time to get serious about my career.
But not thru hiking is a strange concept for me to come to terms with. Ever since starting the Appalachian Trail, I’ve had the dream to get out and complete the other two.
Now I’ve almost done it.
Mission Complete.
Now what?
I don’t know. I’m not sure what the future holds, maybe it’ll be the smaller thru hikes or maybe I’ll get comfortable being a weekend warrior.
What I do know though, is that if I’m ever feeling out of sorts, I can always come back to trail and find my way.
About 6 miles in we came to our first water source that was a cow trough. This time, we got to experience sharing water with a cow at the same time. 🫣
While we were sitting and filtering water we see a herd of cows coming towards us, mooing along.
Usually, they come and wait along the edges, however this crew must have been thirsty as one cow came over to us without a worry and started drinking. She kept her eyes on us and if we made any sudden movement she would flinch, but we tried to stay calm and let her get what she needed, watching the saliva drip back into the water we just collected. 🫢
The others stayed away or drank from the nearby one. I also noticed the cows walk through the other tank and pee in the tank. I told myself that they probably didn’t do that in this tire one, right?
We then had 10 miles to our next source and decided we would do lunch there.
The trail was flat and easy to hike as we looked around at the mountains in the distance, I am still shocked that there are such big mountains around. When I was doing my research on the CDT, I felt like most the videos showed flatness for miles on end but that isn’t the case, at least not yet.
We passed a paved road right before our water cache and caught a glimpse of a couple cars going by. I was so curious as to what people are doing out here in the middle of nowhere.
Today was also windy like crazy. When I had service and looked up the weather it said 29-30 miles per hour wind. And it felt like it.
Sometimes we would be pushing against the wind while hiking and when it would slow down, I could feel myself stumble as I was leaning forward into it.
I frequently felt like I had sand in my eyes and tried to make my sun hoodie cover the side of my face to prevent being blasted by sand.
It was wild looking to see the sand being blown across the terrain.
We made it to the cache around 1 and realized we were doing well on time. I was thrilled, I loved getting to camp early.
We then loaded up and had another 12 miles to camp.
It was beautiful with the clouds and mountains. We kept a good pace trying to stay steady.
We took a short break halfway through to give our bodies a rest. I was thankful for this day though, there wasn’t any long, super heavy water carry.
Toward the end of the day I was able to chat with Journey for a bit and we realized that he was ahead of schedule and would be in the area tomorrow. We would also be crossing a highway tomorrow that he could meet us at.
I felt myself get giddy as Journey asked if there was any chance he could catch us tomorrow. Definitely.
So we coordinated a place we could meet in about 20 miles and will try to camp together for my last night on trail. What a full circle moment. I’m so hopeful it works out and I’m so excited for the thought of seeing him tomorrow instead of the next day.
I can’t believe it’s almost over. I’m ready but I’m not.
We made it to our last water source for today, another water cache and decided to camp next to it to try and have a little shelter from the wind. We knew it was going to calm down tonight eventually and to our luck, around 8 PM it did. Earlier than we expected. Thank goodness. I was worried about my stakes holding up!
It was a good day and I’m so excited for tomorrow. I hope it all works out!
Goodnight!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 