TRT 8: Tramway

Daily Miles: 17

Total Miles: 137

We could hear the voices of the runners going by the lake throughout the night. We realized that almost all the runners we had seen yesterday were doing the 100 mile race, and then the runners coming through this morning were doing the 200 mile race.

At the point where we were seeing the runners this morning, they had just passed the halfway point, so they had just under 100 miles left. There was a pretty big range in terms of how folks were looking today…some looked really fresh and some looked like they were almost in a coma. Almost everyone we saw today was walking. We were almost glad when we finally passed the last of the racers, because it definitely slows us down when we have to step off the trail every few minutes to left a racer pass by. But, overall it was pretty fun to walk through the race.

After about 8 miles this morning, we took a side trail into a ski resort so that we could get to a convenience store where we had sent a resupply box. But before picking up our box, we stopped into the nearby restaurant for lunch. We liked most of the food (Beardoh’s meal was pretty disappointing) and it was nice to just sit down and relax. We got our devices charged and drank a lot of soda.

After lunch, we picked up our box and also bought more food to augment our resupply for this next section. Beardoh, especially, has been super hungry lately, so he picked up a couple of candy bars for each of our last two days. We also got some hot chocolate packets, chips and then ice cream bars to eat right away.

We filled up with water (each person carrying either 3 or 4 liters). With full bellies and full packs, we headed back out to the trail just after 1:45pm. It was really hot again this afternoon which made things feel a bit more uncomfortable.

We saw quite a few day hikers and mountain bikers as we walked this afternoon. It is really nice to see how much use the trail gets with multiple kinds of users (bikers, walkers, runners, horse riders). After hiking a lot on mostly unused trails this hiking season, it is good to see people enjoying the natural resources that are here for them.

We made it to camp by 4:45pm and only saw one mountain biker for the rest of the day. It was nice to have a quiet evening. Tonight Ace and MountainMan are hanging on the opposite side of the trail as us. We both have pretty long hangs which are using almost the entire length of our webbing.

We had a nice time having dinner and chatting for awhile. As soon as the sun started to set the temperature dropped, so we all headed to our hammocks. It is so still in the woods tonight.

Tomorrow we have the potential to pick up water for up to a 21 mile carry. There is a possibility that it can be cut down to just a 9 mile carry, but we aren’t sure. The hand-pump at Marlette Campground (which is 9 miles from our morning water source) has been broken. There was news that it had been fixed, but others have reported that it still is not working. We are hoping to run into another TRT hiker with some up to date intel. It would be really nice not to have to carry so much water.