Miles Hiked: 30
Total Milage: 2472.6
This morning I woke up to a soaking wet tent and sleeping bag. It was some of the worst condensation I’ve ever had in my tent. I packed up while it was still dark along with everyone else. We planned to hike 30 miles today so getting up early was a must. I started the day out hiking pretty quickly. I always try to get the first ten miles done as fast as I can when I’m trying to hike a long day. Then I take lots of breaks the last 10-20 miles. The trail was flat and went through a valley for most of the day. I hiked around Ricochet, Spider Monkey, and Fire Hazzard for the first part of the morning. At one point I had to cross a wide river and it looked like my feet were definitely going to get wet. I decided to climb over a dicey looking fallen tree instead. Luckily I was successful in avoiding getting wet. At a creek in a burn area about 7 miles into the day I took a quick snack break and filtered water. I put on some sunscreen as well since there was no shade at all. It was hot and I was sweating a lot.
After walking through a very exposed burned area, I went into a dense forest. The trail was very well defined but there were large over grown plants on either side of it for miles. Sometimes the plants were even taller than me! They were mostly shoulder height all day though. It definitely slowed me down a bit and was creepy as well. I felt like I could run straight into any animal on the trail and not see it until I was almost touching it. I was clacking my trekking poles together and frequently yelling “Hey ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ!” All day. I hiked alone but there were other hikers about 0.5 ahead of and behind me all day. I occasionally could hear other people yelling “hey ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ” as well. Sometimes I would hoot and holler back when I heard it. Since we were such a large group making noise I was pretty hopeful I wouldn’t see any grizzly bears. I thought a lot about Jurassic park today. I felt like an explorer with a machete chopping plants out of the way left and right. In reality I just had my trekking poles in front of my face for most of the day just to push the plants out of the way. Getting smacked by poky plants all day is a bit difficult.
I took both my lunch and dinner breaks with everyone as well. It was just a fun day spent with an awesome group of people. I feel so lucky to have met them all in the Bob! I feel like I haven’t met many other hikers at all on this trail and it’s nice to make new friends again. Even if it’s close to the end, I always say it’s never too late to meet the right people. By the time we got to camp it was dusk and we all set up in a flat area full of plants. On the CDT you learn not to be picky about campsites. We almost never camp in a designated camping spot like the AT. On the CDT dispersed camping is practiced much more regularly. I fell asleep to the sound of everyone talking. I didn’t write my blog because I was so tired.
Happy Trails!
-Early Bird
Des Hikes Thru 