Campground to north fork ranger station - 15.2 miles

Total - 436.1 miles

I decided to cowboy camp last night bc it sounded fun and everyone BUT Caleb was doing it because he’s scared of bugs. There was one fucking mosquito around my ear all night which drove me insane but other than that I was snug as a bug. Said I was going to wake up at 4:20 am to avoid the heat but I was banking on Marc’s alarm but I didn’t hear it despite Marc whispering my name very loudly. So I woke up at 4:45 and got to work packing up as quietly as I can. Got out of camp around 5:06 at the crack of dawn and got to hiking. It was still so hot at that hour as we have been blessed with really good weather. So I was juicing miles. Caught up to Marc at the water source and there was a whole colony of bees attracted to the water and the salt on our backs. I filled my cnoc and I had 15 bees on my back based on what others told me. Caleb was scared so he made me fill his cnoc and he filtered my water once he caught us. Screaming like a lil girl. Marc was also warning us about not putting on our packs until we were out of bee range. Then we bolted to the ranger station with beers and coke (drink) on our minds. We met this Aussie girl who we had been leap frogging for a week or so named Ella who o really liked but she was pushing on so I couldn’t snap her into our group. Walked into the ranger station and set up for lunch and got our delicious cokes and beers. We did 15 miles by 10:35am and then just rested the who day. I’ve never been so sweaty tho from 85 degree weather. People rolled in all day and we chatted them up during our siesta aka our campsite for the day. We finally got to talk to some people that we have been passing and repaying for weeks which was super cool. Met some cool ladies that I’m trying to rope in. Gourmet joined us but pushed on but agreed to join us on our zero day on Tuesday for family dinner. We also got some good gossip on trail after a month. Two couples have kinda formed in different group with romance which is so cute. On trail romance! The sweetest. Two other couples apparently have started the trail together and broken up after starting which is brutal. But again I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this but every single person I’ve personally have gotten to know is either married or in a relationship. Which is quite strange as it doesn’t seem like that’s usually the case. Very cool though and it feels like it sets up boundaries as well as a tone to the hike where people are here to hike and not hook up which I heard can be the culture on some trails. Which it still might be but not in our bubble at the very least of people. Overall we basically hiked and then lounged and drank coke and beer today. Great day but not a great blog post as nothing major really happened.

Omg also I decided on a trail name! Goldilocks as I like everything just right or as the guys out it I’m not happy with anything. I choose to look at it as a glass half full inside of glass half empty. Also I forgot to mention that we met back up with Teflon and sandstone!!! It was crazy seeing them walk into camp as I haven’t seen them since like day 5. We caught up and it turns out they have been about a day behind us for the past week. They also saw reroute before she got off trail and was updating me on that. Reroute was planning on getting off trail for a week and then seeing how she felt. I plan on texting her in town to see what her plan is. So cool to see familiar faces so far into the hike.