Daily Log: Day 10

Day 10 – Wednesday 7/22/2020 – 1427.9 – partially overcast, 50% chance of rain after 1 pm. I woke at 4:25 am, packed up, ate breakfast and was on trail at 5:05 am. My day was all a long road walk. I met Bam, a NOBO thru-hiker at 10 am. I got to my original goal at 11:20 am, a beautiful spring. I had two bottles of water and lunch. I laid down for a short rest. Then at 1:30 pm I continued hiking. I met Creep another NOBO thru-hiker. I am listening to Outliers audio book which helps pass the time. At 3:30 pm I stopped and set up my tent in what I believed was the lee windward side of a hill. In the distance some rain clouds appeared. The wind picked up. One tent stake pulled out twice. I pounded it back in and put a large rock on it and its neighbor. The tent was buffeted by the wind over and over. Fine grains of dust filled the tent and covered everything. Some rain fell. Then over time the wind died down. I’ve got to learn how to set this tent up better. In two days Justin is planning to hike NOBO from Battle Pass up to me. That is, he will meet me at the summit. He’s even willing to carry some of my stuff down for me. So tomorrow I have about 10 miles to a quick stop & go meet-up with Justin and then 10 more to our actual meet-up campsite at mile 1447. This is to reduce my Battle Pass climb the following day. We shall see how I do.

Hiking along with my shadow.
My campsite which I thought was protected from the wind by the hill on the right. Little did I know that the valley channeled the wind and buffeted my tent filling it with fine dust from the dry road. I’m still trying to get used to being on trail again.