Day 66: Late Start

We slept in until 7am to take full advantage of the hotel room, and then headed to a diner for breakfast and coffee. Next, we packed up our bags then scheduled a trail angel to take us back to the trail head. It was going to be a long uphill slog out of town, a quick 2,700 foot gain of elevation over 5 miles, so Sandman and I weren’t in a hurry to hit the trail. Since we averaged almost 36 miles per day over the last week, today would be a shorter day for us. 

After a gas station stop, we hit the trail around 10:45 am and began our walk. A few miles in the ground started to be a little pink, which I realized was from the flame retardant the planes were dropping on the fire I saw from afar yesterday. The pink grew more prominent until I ran into a fire crew out doing clean up from the blaze. The fire literally was on the trail but was completely put out -- good thing we stopped in town last night! 

Towards the top of the climb, I stopped and chatted with a section hiker who was on his first backpacking trip. He was going through some personal stuff and came out to the trail to clear his head. It was nice talking with him, and ended up giving him my lighter since his stopped working the first night. 

We set up camp around 6pm after only doing 20 miles, but it was a good thing we set up early since it began rain/sleet/snowing shortly after. 

A good day!

Miles: 21.4

Total Miles: 1,752