CDT Day 36 (6/23/23)
Miles 798.4 (Red line 992)- 834.8 (Red line 1028.4) (36.4 miles)
Verbatim
I met three new people today! And I walked quite a clip as well. 36 1/2 miles is no joke. Started at 5:50 and ended around 7:30. I could have walked longer as well, but I saw a good spot.
Today was mostly flat, which made for good miles. I ate a lot of heavy food, and am noticing the frustration of my accumulating plastic. My shoes hanging off the back are really annoying. The laces have tightened under the torque of the shoe’s own weight and movement. So now the shoes hang down beneath the bottom of my pack about three to four inches. That’s just enough for them to swing back and forth. They hit my butt. They also bump into my water bottles, and will naturally bump them right out of the side pockets if the bottles aren’t filled with water.
I took a moment to look around. It’s 8pm and is light out! I should be walking! The birds are singing that that’s really beautiful.
There was trail magic today! Someone named X had left sodas and seltzers in a plastic box for hikers. It was so wonderful to come across. I chugged a root beer. Better yet, there was a bottle of hand sanitizer, so I was able to fill up my poop kit sanitizer. It was getting pretty low.
Post Note
Thruhikers love it when their consumables are low. But, it’s awful when they run out. You want to arrive at the next water source having just felt the first pangs of thirst after having run out of water several miles ago. You want to arrive at town just as you’re eating the last candy bar or tortilla in your food bag (you wouldn’t want to arrive hungry to town, of course, because town takes so much energy to manage). You want to run out of hand sanitizer, and toilet paper for that matter, one poop before arriving at the National Forest outhouse stocked with a gallon of hand-sani and a few rolls of TP. You want to run out of tooth paste the morning before town. Sunscreen too. It sucks when you’ve got to restock on something like sunscreen. You’re going to be carrying around at least eight ounces of sunscreen you have no reason to use except as the miles slowly wear by. When your base weight (pack weight without food and water) is 8 pounds, half a pound of sunscreen is a big deal! That’s almost enough reason in itself to not carry sunscreen. Sorry mom.
The best time to walk is sunset. Let’s talk strategy for making miles while also finding a camp spot. It’s no secret that the midday is the hottest part of the day. Since most thruhikes occur in the summer season midday can be really hot! Lack of shade, humidity, and smoke can all add to the misery that is hiking through the hottest part of the day. So. Instead of hiking between 1 and 3 you and I should take a break and rest. We can hang out together. However, since we’ve still got to crush 30 today to make it to town in three days before our food runs out we’re going to enjoy hiking until sunset. This is good! Hiking during golden hour is the ideal, let me repeat ideal, time to hike. The light is the best. The animals are moving again (they also siesta during the heat of the day and we can enjoy hanging out with them too). And you get to walk through heaven on earth as you enjoy the fading colors of light on the horizon. Golden hour, sunset, is the worst time to be stuck inside your tent eating couscous. Instead, prepare your food at the water source you’re passing closest to sunset. Now eat while you walk! The eating makes the walking better. And the walking makes the eating better. Animals. Light and shadow suffusing the trees. Beans in your mouth. It’s all coming together so well. And guess what, the next thing you get to do is lay your head down and sleep.
While the night sky sets in you should keep your head on a swivel for a suitable camping spot. Some pine needles under the bough of a coniferous tree would be best. Maybe some flat and dry dirt. Not grass. Never grass. You’ve got at least a half hour of dusk (that’s a mile’s worth of distance at 2mph) to find a suitable spot. Don’t settle too quickly. It’s frequent that hikers pick a lesser spot in their weariness only to wake and move the next morning and find an ideal spot a few hundred yards down the trail. But, while you don’t want to settle, you certainly don’t want to pass up something good. Enjoy yourself. That’s the point of hiking at golden hour. I could have slammed a 40 if I’d hiked at golden hour on Day 36.