Today we got to slackpack. If you don’t know what slackpacking is, it’s when a person meets you at the end of the day with all of your gear. You only have to hike with the bare minimum to get you through the day. Last night we convinced Kirby to let us start around 11a, which meant leaving town at 10a. Kirby was driving. We were kind of surprised because he was supposed to be hiking with us. Well, since his dad and stepmom were going to be in town a day less than he expected, he wanted to spend this day uninterrupted with them. We understood. We were just worried he would be stressed trying to catch up. It’s already going to be a rough week with the miles we have planned. Kirby will have to do an additional fifteen miles to end at the same spot. He’s stayed back and caught up before. It’s still weird to be making progress as a group without everyone. We are already down Atlas and Lotus while she figures out what’s happening with her foot. But for Kirby, it should only be a couple of days until he syncs back up.
The plan was to hike fifteen and a half miles today. We started at 11a and finished at 5:45p. That included several breaks and a longer lunch. It always feels amazing when you slackpack. It helps me reset a bit and really enjoy the trail. When I am lighter on my feet I don’t have to be quite so focused on where I’m placing my step, I can actually look around for a bit. A lot of the walk today was pretty flat, which makes it easy to enjoy too. We hiked through some gorgeous forests. Lunch was at a campsite right next to a river with a small waterfall. The wind blew through that site and it felt amazing on this hot, muggy day. We passed by ruins and areas that used to be home to old mining communities. We saw two separate rat snakes – probably one of the most common animals on the trail other than birds, frogs, chipmunks or squirrels.
At 6p, Kirby met us at the parking lot and dropped off our packs. He brought with him the leftover pizza from last night – tonight’s dinner. We hiked in maybe a quarter of a mile where there were some sites next to a river. There were people in the best spots, so we hiked up over the hill in the back. There the underbrush cleared out and there was at least half of an acre of beautiful flat areas for camping. We set up on the hill and reconstructed the fire ring. Warthog, Wonder Woman, and Snow Monkey ate the leftover pizza. I had no desire to eat old pizza. I made my own dinner, which worked out well for everyone because they had extra slices.
After dinner, I spent at least an hour or two updating the website with journal entries and photos. I used my cell as a hotspot for the iPad. Each month is one of those hope and pray I don’t go over data kind of months. Around 11:30p all was updated and I could crash. Even after a zero and slackpacking, I’m still exhausted. I expect to sleep for at least a week straight after we get home. It’s sounds amazing.
-ansel