Day 109 pt1: Something epic in the works

I'd planned to wake up at 3:45am to start hiking by 4:30am... but upon opening my eyes, it was dark and cold. Very cold. Looking at my watch, dawn would begin right after 5 pm so I resolved to start then. The three tents camped near me probably weren't super happy with me since I am not the quietest person getting ready in the morning, which is made more difficult since everything in my backpacking kit seems to make a lot of noise.

I started moving quickly with the goal to make it 10 miles before 8am. There was a trail closure at that point I planned to hike through because there were no good alternative routes and walking a continuous footpath from the Grand Canyon to Canada is important to me. I arrived shortly before 8am to find no Rangers so I quickly hiked through only stopping when I was out of eye sight to take off the layers I'd worn in the brisk morning.

The area was closed due to a fire last year, but the hiking was pretty straight forward with little blowdowns or major obstacles. I felt good pretty much all day, although I did forget my socks that were drying on a rock after I cleaned them in the river. I had to walk back almost a half mile to get them.

It was a beautiful day of hiking with the temperatures not rising about the 70s and a bright sunny, cloudless sky.

I stopped to talk to my parents around 6:30 pmand to make a double dinner for extra fuel. I planned to hike 50 miles today and the extra calories would fuel the additional 3 more hours of hiking I'd do tonight.... or so I thought... read more tomorrow to see how the day ended up.

Miles: TBD