Mantra: "We're doing it. Not really."
Morale: a salty snail
Climate: hot, cold, wet, dry, and everything in between
Miles: 282 - 298.5
"When we came up on all of the hikers at the river I had the feeling not that I had been here before, but that I had been here many times before." -Fey
Oy vey! We must have stopped a million times today for every reason under the sun from Adam's knee pain to rapid and dramatic weather changes to realizing our keyboard was on and typing gibberish in the backpack to checking e-mail, etc. Adam consulted Gypsy, who we started on the same day with, about her knee brace, and we learned that she had had both knees operated on and had less than 35 percent of her meniscus in each knee. Animal Style offered an ace bandage, which provided some temporary relief.
[Morning selfie times, views from a water break, Fey rock sitting, Fire Ant crossing the river, More rock sitting, the flowers]
While we had all agreed to do another 20 mile day, it became quickly apparent that we would not be able to keep up. We were running out of time, and Adam was in too much pain. Day Hike and Jetpack were way ahead, but Animal Style had dropped his water bottle cap and had to backtrack, not to mention he was on the phone with REI for an hour, and we ran into Spearhead at mile 10 of the day around 3pm. They both affirmed that they would try to complete the 20 miles, even if it meant hiking into the dark.
We accepted that we would be separated from the group, and we slowed down even more as we chatted with Genie and Fire Ant at the water side, where Adam "iced" his knee in the river. We then watched as Fire Ant struggled to cross the river, as she is quite small and the crossing was easiest for those with long legs. Animal Style, who is 6'5'', eagerly offered his help, taking her pack which she warned was her "whole life," and then ten hikers watched wide-eyed with baited breath as he wildly ran across the rocks, pack in hands, nearly dunking it twice in a wild figure 8 motion as he struggled to keep his balance.
[Made it to our campsite under the bridge, a rare fire with AS and SH, campsite digs]
Later we ran into Ultra, who we hadn't seen in a week, and got the updates about his shin splints. We passed a million beautiful beachy campsites, but Adam's knee was finally warm, so we pushed for at least 15 miles. When we made our goal, we had the sneaky feeling that there would be hikers a mile and a half further down the trail, where there was a campsite by the river.
Sure enough, Animal Style and Spearhead had stopped at the water under the bridge, so we camped there with them, even making a fire. Spearhead and I shared a lot of laughs, and she narrated in a wildlife-documentary-voice as Adam extinguished the fire via several trips to and from the water: "The only responsible adult extinguishes the fire that Animal Style has now abandoned."
