GET Day 4: Picketpost

Daily Miles: 4

Total Miles: 52

SweetPea decided she needed a bit more rest time for her knee, so instead of heading out early this morning, we rested and then started hiking at 5:00pm. We spent the day doing “town” tasks and eating a lot. Purple and Carnivore always seem to have everything a hiker could want…

-a spare neoair (since Beardoh couldn’t find a short one at any of the outdoor stores)

-spare umbrellas they don’t want back (we figured it would be good to try them with the hot sun)

-an empty ice tea gallon container (we wanted it for Beardoh to be able to carry more water and since he only hikes with one pole he can carry it by hand)

-duct tape (we realized we didn’t have anything to put on our feet when we got hot spots since SweetPea is using a different set of poles than normal)

For sure there are others we’re not remembering, but they were super helpful in getting us ready to head back on the trail.

It was hard to leave the comfort of Purple and Carnivore’s home, especially when the thermometer read 92 degrees, not to mention their good company. Luckily by the time we arrived at the trailhead, the temperature was down to 86 and there was a bit of a breeze. It actually felt pretty decent, which made us happy.

We said goodbye to Purple and Carnivore and then headed up the trail. The trail was really nice and meandered back and forth as it gradually went uphill. SweetPea’s knee was feeling better (she got a slip-on knee brace which felt good), so we were able to keep a good pace.

We passed a mountain biker who is part of a current race of the AZT. There are two lengths racers can choose from…350 or 750 (we think). This guy was doing the 350 length which meant that he was finishing up where we had just come from. He was glad to be finishing and said it had been a really hard day. It is amazing to think that he started the race just four days ago…he must have really been cruising! And he said he wasn’t in first place…another biker had finished the 350 miles in 2 days!

We continued on a bit further and then came across a couple from France who is hiking the AZT. We met them a few days ago when we were caching food and gave out sodas to hikers near the cache spot. It seemed like they were struggling with the heat and lack of water on the trail. It has definitely been a challenge for us as well. And with another three days of really high temps, it is going to be a tough stretch coming up.

We decided to camp not too far from the French couple, as it was getting late. Our campsite has an awesome view of Picketpost Mountain. As we were getting ready for bed, we saw two separate mountain bikers coming down the trail. We could see their headlamps from a ways away, and just watched the light move down the trail. We always like seeing the mountain bike racers.

Another night filled with lots of stars…and a bit of a breeze. Perfect cowboy-camping situation. We decided to go for an early start tomorrow due to the heat, so our alarms are set for 4:45am…ouch.