Today may’ve been my favorite day yet. I woke around 4:50am and broke camp and was out within an hour. I hiked slowly and enjoyed the morning. The sun peeked out and made everything golden and orange but only for a brief time and then it went behind the clouds. The trail kept crossing roads with lots of work trucks on there with people constructing wind turbines. I stopped to meditate briefly. The hiking was easy most of the morning. I stopped for a break with Tina and Boujee.

My feet felt fine and I picked up the pace. The trail had some short but very steep climbs and somehow I passed everyone ahead and climbed nonstop. It felt good to feel good and to push myself. I took another break with arugula and we talked about doing 30. As the day went on we decided to go for at least 25 but maybe 30. Everyone else wanted to do only 20. While I was on the trail which joined a dirt road for a bit, a truck drove up and gave me fresh strawberries. I was saving some for Arugula but I found out they gave her some and water and a juice box.

I pushed the last 7 and my feet really hurt. I stopped once but kept going. The trail went from dry desert to lush pine forests with grassy floors. It became the prettiest terrain I’d seen yet. We stopped at the spring and it was beautiful. We had debated staying because it was so nice. Arugula said to me “I think the water is that way but let’s go engage with people here (non thru-hikers) and see if we can get something free.” Sure enough we asked someone where the water was and he gave us each 3 danishes. It was random but delicious. I ate all 3 then had dinner.

We pushed on the last 4 and made 30 by around 9:40. We found a relatively flat spot and pitched our tents. It felt good and I’m glad we did it. A great day.