Today was the BIG MILEAGE day! I woke up at 6:30am along with the rest of the crowd (Ladyface, B.S., Jessica, Grilled Cheese, That Guy, and Teapot). They all headed for the golf grille for breakfast, I instead packed up, made some phone calls, then limped to the grille to announce my intention to start walking. I was feeling down, wanting to quit, my foot hurting more than ever, but decided the only way to get out of my funk was to start walking. Sure enough, 3 miles into the day my tendons loosened some, the foot felt somewhat better, and I started cruising down the trail.
The miles clicked by. I passed a marine from Camp Pendleton back from Iraq and out for the weekend. He had no water filter and was short on water so I stopped to get him refilled. Then I cruised on, passing Manny right after a brief stop for water around noon. Four hours of hiking, 11 miles done. Still alone, I set a goal to catch Phantom, Mike Mouse, and Good To Go by day’s end. I calculated they would go for water which was sparse, so I kept pushing to do miles. The foot felt great, but blisters were tearing up both feet due to the big miles and constant pounding.
By mid afternoon I passed Heidi, stopped for a 10 minute lunch, then kept moving. 4pm—I caught up to The Family…they were in shock that I had covered so many miles. We talked for a bit, I shared with them my story about the amazing day I had yesterday. Then I pushed on. 6:15pm—I found my hiking buddies: camped exactly where I predicted they would be! What a hiking day! For a gimpy 43-year old, I was proud of my accomplishment and excited that the foot did so well. The fellas were excited to see me, and vice versa. I quickly made camp, got some serious food in my body, and rested the feet. Nightfall came quickly as I worked hard to get some journaling caught up before becoming too tired to write.
Beautiful evening, cold, coyote was howling at the stars as I finished journaling. Great day to get back on the trail! Today’s weather: Partly cloudy, low 45, high 75. Today’s mileage 27.0 and cumulative mileage 136.6.
