Little jimmy campground to sulphur springs campground - 23.4 miles

Total - 406.6 miles

Someone counted the number of people at the last campground and it was 60 tents. Insane. I wanted to get up earlier bc I didn’t want to hike with 60 people. Started off with such a fun uphill omg so happy to be going uphill once again. Killed me inside . Caleb ran by bc he had 200mg of caffeine pumping through his veins so I didn’t see him for the rest of the day. We went up just to go down to the same exact road. Killed me and my knees. Then we had a road walk around a protected area for the frogs. Predicted to only be 300 left and they are on restoration. Hiked that with Marc. This is where the story begins really. We were walking through the detour which went through a campground and we saw the Netherlands guy with the blue sun hoodie we met yesterday at the top of mount Baden Powell. He said hi and we moved on to a shitty ass section of burn downs and dust. Stopped for water and the bard caught up to us right before we left and apparently he went up extra elevation bc he didn’t see the pct trail which is unfortunate as we still had a lot of climbing to do. We moved off and took another detour that was shorter than the length of the pct but it was a dirt road barely used. After texting hunter needing a morale boost I did some more burnt out elevation before we hit the highway 2 for the fourth time today. I came across a group of people, which was confusing as I was truly the first one out of camp of the 60 people. I left at 5:45 so maybe 1-2 people beat me but not 10 people. I didn’t think twice but I did look behind me and I saw someone walking up the road. After another brutal downhill, hurting badly from my ankles to the tip of my head I pulled up to the lunch spot Marc and I had agreed upon and I saw the guy with the blue sun hooding looking all relaxed and dandy while I had soaked my shirt full of sweat with a beat red face and anger in my eyes after 18 miles of pure fatigue. He said he had been there for 2 hours. Mind you I never got passed once while suffering through one of the worst sections (still gorgeous just morale wise). I was so confused as there were people there as well I never saw pass me but saw them at the campsite and more were showing up. Figured out that everyone had been road walking the entire day. We had been suffering while they were taking shortcuts!!!!!! Same with the wrightwood situation where people hitched in to McDonald’s when there was 14 more miles to do. They all zeroed while we suffered. So after we saw everyone coming it was a competition to get to camp first. We always beat everyone to camp and today it wasn’t changing. Asserting our dominance once again we booked it despite how tired I was, despite my pain in every inch of my body, I was fucking beating everyone. We left with the blue sun hoodie guy behind us. An hour later we fucking pass him laying down once again, waving at us with a smirk. The man road walked AGAIN. The man was spawning everywhere and the worst part was I was so tired and he looked so fresh. So we booked it and beat him to camp. Caleb and vanish had been there since just before two and we arrived at 3 on the dot. We did 24ish miles by 3. And we were about the first ones to camp as well so we picked our spots and got to relaxing and complaining about how our bodies hurt. The guy in the blue sun hoodie finally came into camp and confessed how much he road walked. We walked 24 miles and he walked 15ish. He cut off so many miles just by road walking and I’m fuming about it since I was so tired. As the bard put it “anyone who walked more road miles than is a cheater and anyone who walked less road miles than me is a purist.” And I believe in those words whole heartedly. He was also so funny though as he said he hates hiking but loves everything else of a thru hike so he don’t give a fuck. But We were also scheming on how to ruin the road walkers lives and Marc suggested to super glue their zippers so they couldn’t get out of their tents. Noting that for future use. It was a rough day morale wise once again as I was just hurting and felt a lot of tightness and fatigue. I have to remember that I’m still going fast compared to others but it hard when your group are also speedy as fuck. It’s not a competition but it is. Plus I just want to get to camp bc that’s the best part of the day besides bed and views. I’m starting to get real comfortable with the gang as I’m starting to chirp them back with a little more hair on my chest. The chirps have been getting better and I think they are impressed so that’s a win but it also runs the risk of them chirping me right back so it’s a fine balance. Camp again is way too many people but I think we are slowing it down tomorrow as 1. We can order pizza to the trailhead and 2. We are ahead of schedule and we already booked our Airbnb. So it might be a double zero which I think I need anyway. Soops excited unless we have to do 21 miles tomorrow. Then I’m pissed. Omg also we hit mike 400 (again minus a small detour of roughly 8ish miles)!!!