16.9 miles today
200.4 miles total
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Most mornings I get up ready for the day. Today I wasn’t as motivated, but oddly I got ready faster than normal. I spent the first hour cold and contemplated went on earth am I doing this. That bed the night before last was soooo cozy, and I miss Grant terribly. But then as I’m having these thoughts in watching a beautiful sunrise over the lake as it illuminates the mountains beyond.
The first few miles of the day were relatively flat and easy, which I was grateful for because after that was a 3 mile climb with a 3000ft increase in elevation. Y’all, that’s pretty steep! Luckily a few miles into the climb I come across a fellow hiker, Chief, who I met last week, but hadn’t seen since. We had a similar pace during this climb so we hiked together. It was so nice to hike with someone for a change and get out of my own head for a little while. We ended up hiking the rest of the day together through the intense heat, but we made it through ?
We got to camp early, which was fine by us because we were toast! Took our time with evening chores and had good convos over dinner. The next few days are going to be intense as we are in some of the most difficult and exposed sections on the trail. But I think we got this! ?
