Distance hiked today: 23.7 miles / 38.1 km.
Nena made us a delicious breakfast, set up outside on her patio. Coffee, egg casserole, and fresh fruit. Mimosas too, if you were so inclined.
I stopped at a cafe in town for ice for my insulin, and then was back on trail. The trail followed the road through town for a few miles, and a man who was out for a morning run called out that he had left some trail magic at the trail head. There were sodas in a cooler and snacks by his van.
The trail switchbacked up the hills, and you could see it for miles cutting into the side, ocasionally spotting another hiker as a small dot making their way up.
For lunch I had my plastic cheese and a tortilla, and added some pulled pork I had freeze dried - pretty gourmet.
In the afternoon I found a nice bench to sit on in the shade of a big tree. A hiker passing by told me there was another type 1 diabetic a few miles behind me. We're few and far between in normal life, even more so on a thru hike, and I wanted to meet him to chat. I'm curious about others' insulin storage and resupply strategy because there aren't a lot of options for ultralight hiking. I waited on the bench for a couple hours for him to catch up, until someone told me he had stopped to camp a mile back. Too bad, but I hope to run into him farther up trail.
We cowboy camped at a fire station where there's a water spigot, arriving after dark. The last 6 miles in the evening were really nice, with cooler air once the sun went down.
Total trail mileage: 478.2 miles / 769.4 km