Monday, July 22nd

Monday, July 22nd. Day 34

Today's miles = 23.1 Total CDT miles = 507.7

There was a deer prancing around my tent last night that kept waking me up. I didn't mind at first because it sounded like it was having a lot of fun but after a few hours of it jumping over the branches behind my tent I got a little frustrated. But I guess I sent up my tent in it's home so I can't be mad at it. After the deer was done doing it's nighttime round of acrobatics I fell asleep and slept pretty well except for the headache I had. I woke up at 5am with my head pounding so instead of getting up I grunted, took some Ibprophin, and went back to sleep until 7am. I got up and ate my blueberry Poptart and happily sipped away my coffee. Hiking started at 8:40. I was under the impression that the lake was the last water for 15 miles. This particular lake wasn't the clearest. It was swarming with little brown microscope bugs. The water filter I have gets those out so I don't mind so much but it clogs up the filter in the process. About a mile into the hike this morning I came across a beautiful spring. The water was coming straight out of the mountain. So, I dumped my lake water and filled up with the spring water. There was no more water for another 7 miles. The hike today was actually nice minus the fact that it was a burn area. There were a few climbs but the trail was graded today.

The smoke from the wildfire died down in the afternoon so we couldn't really tell the direction of the fire. It's definitely far enough away from us not to be a concern. The smoke from wildfires can travel a lot farther than you would think. I took lunch at the 8 mile mark today. It was the only water for the next 12 miles and I wanted to cook mashed potatoes for lunch. So, I took an early lunch and grabbed 3 liters of water. Monkey only took two liters. He kept talking of water in 5 miles but I was doubtful. Sure enough there was no mystery water 5 miles later and poor Monkey was rather thirsty today. He also has some feet issues going on. I suggested he wrap his feet in gauze and medical tape. I guess it helped but he didn't have the best hike today I don't think.

We had to hike off trail to get to the water tonight where we stopped to have dinner around 7:30. Only 3 miles after dinner we called it a night. We are 4 miles from the road to town. The plan is to get up as early as we can (ha!), hike the 4 teeny tiny miles to Lost Trail Pass where we will hitch 30 miles and hopefully make it to Darby in time to find somewhere to eat breakfast.