Day 81

Sherald lake campsite to lost lakes campsite - 20.8 miles

Total - 1070.9 miles

Horrible, horrible sleep last night. I thought I was so high and mighty by finding ANOTHER hole in my pad and patching it, for it to only deflate throughout the night. I blew it up maybe 4 times and by 3am I gave up and practically slept on a 1/3 full pad. I also was half asleep and I kept thinking something big was sniffing around my vestibule. Not a bear but maybe a fox but after some consideration I think it was my eyelashes brushing against my pad causing a sniffing sound. I am unwell. Woke up at 5:20 and out of camp slowly by 6 for our first 20 mile day in awhile. I caffeinated mainly because of the lack of sleep and also worried that 20 miles was going to take me a long time. It didn’t lol. I hiked alone for a little bit, weaving between meadow and forest, only for it to open up into this gorgeous green mountain hillside with black rocks towering above me as I hiked on. Marc caught up at this point and we bolted up the first climb of the day. It was shorter and graded nicely but it didn’t stop me from sweating my fucking ass off, dripping everywhere. The top was covered in shale and the best part was there was service. Marc stopped with a couple others to call home while I pursued on. I ended up calling camille though on the second small climb and the downhill. We gossiped and I got some good tea while I updated her. After the call, I got to this traverse that was hugging the rocking mountain side where I met floris! He’s going SOBO from truckee and I ended up talking to him for a lil bit catching up. As usual, he hates hiking but he’s still out here. I gave him updates about everyone else and myself. After, I ended up absolutely biffing it causing my left knee and hip to twist behind me. I went for a step down with my poles for once and my shoe slipped on the loose dirt. It hurt but it went away after 5 minutes maybe. I ended up taking 4 ibeprofen to combat any swelling just in case and it didn’t hurt for the rest of the day. Not even now which is a great sign. It sucked bc my hip was feeling good too all day, and the fall tweaked it but the ibeprofen helped that as well. I cruised for the rest of the morning before Marc caught up again while I was filtering water. It’s a trend really. I’m not going slow, the man is just fucking fast. From floris, we heard there might be trail magic at a dirt road. Once we got there, the couple said they ran out of food last night but they had some cold beverages aka Costco Powerade. And it was fucking delicious. Never underestimate a cold drink. I was thinking about it for the rest of the day. This was around 11ish so we had lunch in the chairs that they provided. We met some new people who were really nice. After lunch we had about 7ish miles left so we booked it. The climbing wasn’t hard at all, it was just hot, hot, hot. I got more service and I ended up getting a call from the fucking university of utah for an unpaid bill. That shit was $30. Why do you need $30 so badly. They threatened to shut down my account or something. Stupid bitches. I mean that wholeheartedly. Anyways, despite me complaining about this now, I still paid the bill on top of a mountain. I then had to upgrade my garmin texting plan as I am soooooooooooo popular and everyone wants to know what I’m doing or where I am. Aka I want to know everyone else’s business. So now I have unlimited BABY! Text me all y’all want bc it don’t matter anymore. I caught up to Marc after all those chores as he was filtering water. The last bit of climbing was gorgeous. Views for days on a grassy mountain top with wildflowers scattering the hillside. The wildflowers have been amazing these past couple of days. Got to the top and saw the lake we would be camping at. Looked hella swimmable which was our only conditions. Storm clouds had been building up but the wind was pushing them away, we still ended up booking it a lil faster down the mountain top just in case. Found the campsite, which was in the forest. The best part was there were no fucking mosquitos. The entire day, my shoe was slightly itching the top of my feet causing my 20+ mosquito bites to itch just enough where I would notice it. My pants also rubbed against the ones on my ankles. I am suffering. Marc and I set up our tents quickly just in case it did rain then mosied our way down to the water to swim aka dunk for 1 minute, squeal, and then get out of the water. The water was perfect though, not too cold, not too hot, clear, and pretty. Forgot to mention that we did 20 by 2. I don’t get our pace honestly. I know it depends on elevation but sometimes our pace baffles me. Anyways, Old trees shot out of the water creating a cool sight. The storm clouds were darkening and thunder began but it was still headed the other direction. Ben and gourmet showed up and also swam. While they did that, I ordered emilys birthday gift as we had service by the lake. Even on trail, I am on top of my shit. I called Emma and gave her a lil update and got her lil update. She cut her hair and it looks so good! The guys were throwing rocks at the dead trees towering in the water. Such men. Then the wind directions changed and the thunder and rain started to roll in our way. Got back to the tents before maybe 5 minutes of rain fell with thunder rumbling over top of us. I love a good thunderstorm but now that it’s fire season I am more hesitant. This wasn’t bad though. After, we all got out for dinner and then talked about a whole bunch of random things. Marc got a lesson on Mormons lol. Now we are in bed.

Caleb was supposed to catch up today but 33 miles is a lot. Apparently his whole body was cramping which makes sense with the heat and losing a lot of salt. Klara made it to Tahoe from her hitch as she wasn’t feeling good. Glad she got there safely and excited to see her in Tahoe. Also got an update that Louisa is shooting to be back in the states by the third for the fourth and then also continue hiking. Everything is coming together! Some people are still missing as in celebrating in different towns but excited to see the people that we can!