Distance hiked today: 22.2 miles / 35.7 km.
I ate a double breakfast again, cereal, eggs, sausage, and all the things I didn't want to pack out.
I joined MacGuyver, who had arranged an 8am ride with a trail angel. The group I was hiking with wanted to stay in town a bit longer today. But since Colin is meeting me in Kennedy Meadows, I need to average 22 miles a day to get there at the same time so I headed off alone, hoping to run into them down the trail again.
It was a hot climb out of the valley. The first couple days out of town my backpack is heavy with food, and this stretch has really limited water which means I'm carrying 4-5L. I passed a guy 0.8 miles from the water source, laying across the trail looking quite rough. He was out of water and had already received water from other hikers over the last few miles. I gave him half a litre that I could spare, which was basically all I had but we were almost at the spring.
At the spring there were lots of people, waiting out the heat and reluctant to leave. I scooped and filtered from the water trough and although it was full of algae and bugs it tasted great. Little frogs sat on the algae croaking at each other, or maybe at us.
I met Dan again and it turns out there were 4 type 1 diabetics at Hiker Town at the same time including me. I haven't met all of them, but we were both surprised just given the portion of the population that even has it plus the enormous undertaking it is to thru-hike with it. But I know of at least 6 at this point, with 2 more ahead. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, cause we're all badasses 😉.
I hiked with MacGuyver on and off throughout the day. The trail followed a dirt road/quad trail for a long time which was boring, so having company was nice.
I'm still exhausted from the aqueduct hike, and almost fell asleep sitting down under a tree. We camped below some wind turbines, where there were tent sites nestled into the bushes. Someone arriving after dark came and told me he saw a fox just behind my tent as he walked in, but that he "seemed chill", whatever that means.
Total trail mileage: 587.3 miles / 945 km
