Distance hiked today: 20.7 miles / 33.3 km.
I got a ride back to the trail head with some other hikers from a trail angel named Molly, who is in her 80s (I think). It was… quite a ride. The road up is super windy, narrow, and on the edge of steep banks with no guard rails or shoulder. But to Molly, it's a race track. She drives this road multiple times per day, so she knows it well. She takes the hairpin turns going so fast that the car tires literally screech around the corners, with no regard for the center line, as us hikers squished in the back seat hang on tight, get pulled from side to side, and silently mouth "holy shit" to each other. Luckily there's not a lot of traffic on this road. We were all a bit car sick at the top and had to sit for 10 minutes to let it pass - it's a strange feeling when most of our transportation for months has been on foot.
Right away I passed the 1600 mile marker.
In the afternoon I got to a small lake where I waded in to wash my legs and cool off, and saw little salamanders living in the water. Without coming up for air much, they swam around the bottom looking for food and checking me out.
I got a bit of snow for my insulin from a patch off trail but there was none that we had to walk through. A few blowdowns, some nice views, and I got to camp at a decent time before many others showed up later who had left town after me.
Total trail mileage: 1620.4 miles / 2607.2 km
