I woke up in a cloud this morning. My tent was maybe even the wettest it’s been the whole trip. Packing up wet stuff sucks, but sometimes you need to do it. The plastic bag that’s around my sleeping bag and clothes should be enough to protect them from my tent.
The fog cleared early in the mountains, but I could see it down in the valleys for most of the day.
The trail once again followed the border between Montana and Idaho and went up and down and up and down the ridges that make up the divide. It was beautiful hiking, but really hard since there wasn’t really much of a trail and the elevation change was significant.
Eventually I went down into a valley and then back up a pass and things became a little more like usual. I spent some time in the forest and going up and over small passes.
I caught up to a Nobo hiker for the first time since the Winds. It was a nice reminder I’m not all alone out here, despite starting the day camped near two Nobos that I met at the RV park in Lima.
I’m still seeing a lot of Sobos. The last one I saw today was excited to hear I had seen so many. She took a couple days off and was afraid she fell way behind.
The hike went by fast today. It was hard trail and I found myself ending the day at about 35 miles. With this much elevation change, that’s one of my biggest days ever.
On these harder days I find that my mind is more engaged and I don’t have to fight boredom as much. Over the last few weeks I’ve been breaking my hike up by hours. Every hour I eat a snack and check my progress for the day. Other than at the beginning of the hour I’m not “allowed” to see how far I’ve gone or eat more. I still look at my phone to make sure I’m on trail but I can do that without seeing how many miles I’ve hiked.
So far this has worked really well. A 35 mile day is daunting. Hiking an hour at a pace a little under 3 mph is actually pretty easy. Doing it 12 more times turns out not to be that hard either.
I’ve also tried to restrict listening to music, books, and podcasts. If I’m bored, I’ll wait until the next hour to start something. This makes the day go faster and often I’ll be able to go a few hours before starting something.
Thru hiking is as much a mental game as it is a physical one. Since I’ve been hiking alone so much I’ve spent a lot of time in my head. So far I think that’s been a good thing!
Oh yeah, remember how I said that plastic bag should keep my stuff dry? It didn’t. I pulled my tent out to dry at lunch but didn’t think much of the other stuff. Everything was surprisingly wet when I pulled it out tonight. It dried enough before I went to sleep and my body heat should do the rest overnight. Lesson learned. Wet tents go outside your pack.