Miles Hiked 24.9
Elevation 6,062 feet
Miles Hiked Today 12.2
I woke up late. It was about 7:00 AM. I had gotten plenty of sleep and my hope was the rest would help my knees and back after the problems incurred yesterday during a descent from Miller Peak. The campsite I picked was not ideal but it was the first fairly flat ground I could find yesterday evening. The consequences of my selection had my sleeping pad sliding to the right in my tent. It wasn’t the first time this has happened. I had leg cramps during the night even though I drank plenty of water. It was my hope that did not portend to how the day was going to go.
After eating a couple of Kind breakfast bars, I packed up and was on my way by 8:30 AM. The trail was mostly downhill until toward the end of the day when there was to be a 700 foot elevation gain. I would have preferred a slight elevation gain from the start instead. My knees immediately started aching and my back was not feeling happy after wrenching it yesterday. Ibuprofen was not helping.
I was still carrying a lot of water even though I came across water before I drank what I had. I contemplated not carrying so much water (4 liters when filling up). The water is heavy. It weights 2.2 pounds per liter so I was carrying almost 9 pounds of water whenever I filled up. That really made my backpack heavy. Still, I considered the consequences of not having enough water and it’s scarcity, so I maintained the volume.
As the day wore on, the knee and back pain increased. This was really troublesome, because I was literally limping down the trail. I should be doing 15 or more miles per day and there was no way I was going to do that much today.
Around 6:00 PM I reached an area known as the Saddle about 25 miles in on the trail. A tent site popped up right where a post on Far Out (mapping app on my phone) said it would be. This time the ground was flat. The tent went up easily. I fixed dinner and had a freeze dried meal. I was hungry and it was good. It was going to be another cold night, so I slipped into my sleeping bag by 8:00 PM and went right to sleep. This time I didn’t go sliding around inside the tent, which was great and a confirmation of the flat ground on which I put up the tent.
