Daily miles 22
Total miles 87.5
Camp elevation 5200 feet
Had a quicker start to the day, since we didn’t need to pack up tarp or tent. It was also nice not having the noise of the tarp last night. The only noise keeping people awake last night was SweetPea’s snoring as she is fighting a cold.
We had a steep climb this morning which helped to warm us up. The morning walking was quite nice as the trail wound along the edge of some mountains. The area we walked through was part of an old mining area. There were several signs describing some remnants of the old and seemly unsuccessful gold mine… Pretty interesting.
At one point in the morning, we noticed a lot of flagging on the trail and arrows on the ground. We realized as we came out to a trailhead that there was an ultramarathon going on on our trail. We passed the 46 mile aide station in a 50 mile ultramarathon. We ended up walking to Kentucky Camp for lunch which was the finish line about two minutes before the first place runner came in.
We hung out there and had lunch. The race volunteers made us turkey burgers and hot dogs. It was really nice trail magic. In the hour we were there, only three racers finished.
Once we headed back out on the trail, we passed the mile 33 aide station. We were there just a few minutes before they were going to close up. That meant that the racers we saw as we kept walking were not going to be able to finish. We felt bad for them, but some still seemed in good spirits.
The rest of the day went smoothly. We are camped at a water trough tonight and luckily we don’t actually need to get water from it because it looks pretty gross. Instead there is a tank nearby where we can get water.
Amazing sunset tonight. Definitely the best of the trail so far.
Lots of water during the first half of the day as well as at Kentucky camp. Their was less water as we went on and we know tomorrow will be sparse as well
*hammocking opportunities up to mile 88 in the small canyons.
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