I was the first one up this morning because I was eager to get moving before the heat. I had a few hours before the sun came over the mountains and it was awesome. Eventually the sun came out and it got hot and that’s when things sorta went off the rails.
This mud puddle seemed to produce the worst swarms of mosquitos I’ve ever seen. Literally hundreds chasing me down the trail. At one point I was running and somehow they still kept up with me. I’m assuming lots of the water that flows into this basin is trapped underground and that must be west they came from. Either way it SUCKED.
Even with the heat and mosquitoes I was feeling pretty good. I hit almost 20 miles by noon. My first water source was a nice fenced spring with a lot of cow friends. There was even what I think was a wild horse! I know they’re around here, but this one could have just belonged to the rancher or something,
After the water, my body started to fail a little bit. I felt really weak and a little sick. I’m not sure if I didn’t drink enough or eat enough, but I was moving really SLOW.
The next ten miles were rough. It was constantly windy and I don’t think I saw a single tree (or person) all day. I didn’t feel Al that hot, but that’s because the sweat was drying so fast it was like I wasn’t sweating at all. Everything covered by my backpack was soaked. The wind made breaks stressful since everything wanted to blow away.
Eventually I reached another water source and found a little shade behind a sign. It sucked, but it was better than nothing. I took some ibuprofen, drank my Dr Pepper from the night before and moved on.
I got to camp just before dark feeling s lot better than before. I did 40 miles today, so I’m still pretty wrecked, but I was at least walking kinda fast. That makes today my biggest so far on trail!!