Mile 454 to 466
Mantra: Beat the heat
"That's the thing about town food. It f***s you in the stomach." - Dayhike
We finally pulled ourselves away from the womb that is Hiker Heaven; we rode away in a big pick-up truck driven by one of the volunteers. He was retired and had hiked the trail a few years ago, and he took his job as a volunteer v. seriously. He "gave us our first hill" by plowing up the trail in the truck, and we all hopped out and waved him off. We hit the trail in the afternoon, which at first was pleasant and I was all "oh yeah I love this," and within a mile we were greeted with a steep, endless climb, and I was all "noooooooo." That’s the bummer about towns… you always hike down to get there and up to leave again. Some of us were experiencing stomach pain after gorging ourselves on french toast and cheese dip all weekend, so it was a slow haul.
At the top, we sat and had a snack, then kept on hiking, enjoying the best sunset I’ve seen on trail. To be honest, I’m usually in my tent by 7 at the latest, and when the sun sets I’m already zonked, so I’ve seen surprisingly few. Tonight was different, though, because we had planned to night hike! We stopped to filter some water and make a quick dinner; two other hikers quickly joined us and informed us that they had JUST seen a cougar 5 minutes previous. The cougar sighting did not deter us; after the sun set, we hoisted on our headlamps and kept right on trekking for three miles. We followed each other at a distance in the dark, guided by each other's headlamps. The trail was perfect: a smooth path meandering between shrubs in the cool night air, moonlit.
By 10, my body was super confused, and we quickly set up camp practically on the trail. I don’t think I moved the entire night; when I opened my eyes, it was 5am – hiking time!
