Daily miles : 22
Total miles : 1243
Warm night of sleep, with plenty of visits from the local deer population. It is hard to know how many deer were walking about through the woods near us, maybe two or three, but they are bothersome enough to make us want to seek out campsites not identified on the maps/guide info in hopes of avoiding future encounters.
The day was warm, dusty and dry, with most of the hikers that we met today commenting on the heat. We had a climb in the morning and some small climbs throughout the day, but in general, the hiking was easy and the trail was smooth. Much of the trail is a light, powdery dirt right now, which makes for very dirty feet and legs and just dusty walking in general.
We saw quite a few hikers during the day, including Bushwick, Cliff Hanger, and Sh*t Lips, all of whom we had seen in the last couple days but had yet to break together and introduce ourselves. There was a shy hiker that we have seen over the last two days that was limping a lot today and had his knee wrapped up. We heard that he ended up trying to hitch into town from a road crossing mid day. The road seemed a little light on traffic, so hopefully he was able to get the hitch he needed to find a doctor.
Beardoh started his strategy of using regular socks for half of the day, and then switching to Toe Sox for the latter half of the day. He is doing this in an effort to stop needing to replace his Toe Sox so often. The Toe Sox have become a staple for him over the last couple years since they stop blisters, but they are not long lasting like the Darn Tough brand of regular socks.
Tonight we are camped at an unlisted camp spot just off the PCT. It is just us and Mountain Man. The mosquitoes are very plentiful and they are buzzing quite busily around our hammocks as we write this.
Which brand of toe socks is Beardoh wearing? Smartwool seem to wear through quickly. I recently switched to injinini and thus far they seem much more durable. Also was just reminded recently that Smartwool has a replacement policy much like DarnTough.
I have been wearing Toe Sox brand. For several years I wore Injinjis, but they switched some materials in the model I liked and looked elsewhere for a different sock. I should take a look at what Injinji offers these days.