Day 95

I woke today to some light and intermittent rain. The sky was dismal and I felt depressed because of it. I didn’t know a single person I was camping with and I felt very lonely. I left around 6:30 and headed out. The rain was enough for me to throw my rain fly on but not my jacket. I hiked on and got enough service to make a short phone call and called my mom. I lost service within 15 minutes and hiked a steep climb as the rain came down. I don’t really enjoy hiking in exposed, treeless areas, so I didn’t enjoy this. Plus it was raining. I didn’t see anyone for over an hour.

I took a break at 10 miles in. A quick one. I pushed another 5 and had a longer break with a couple guys I hadn’t met before. They seemed a little grumpy about hikers having to jump up around the closure. Oh well. I pushed another 5 miles to the last water for 6 or so miles and grabbed some. My stupid filter is so slow after I spent 30 minutes flushing it. So filtering is now a long chore again. I hiked on and had service so I made a few phone calls. I had originally planned to do 42 miles but there was way more climbing than I anticipated. However it was all downhill now. I changed my mind to shoot for just under 36.

The trail was miserable. It was so grown in and had so many down trees and massive amounts of poison oak. I refused to stop and kept going. I pushed and pushed. I came up to an older man and I asked if I could pass when it was safe. He said “go ahead” and wouldn’t move aside and kept walking. I said “well, it’s hard to pass on this narrow trail unless you move over.”. He then rudely said “yeah, exactly”, as if my request to walk around him was unreasonable. I found wide enough trail and brushed by him and sped on. What a jerk.

I made it to camp just after 8pm. I washed all the poison oak off myself and then made dinner and laid in my tent and ate it. There’s one other gentlemen here who I haven’t met. So far, my biggest day. 35.8.