As expected the night was rough, very rough! Because I have a single-wall tent I am not allowed to touch the walls when its raining otherwise I’ll get wet too.

 

I woke up at 3am and couldn’t find any more sleep because. So I played with my phone until it was time to get up.

 

Well, getting up was not easy today because everything was frozen over night. And by everything I mean everything. From socks to underwaer, jacket, tent, shoes,… litteraly everything! Even the ground around the tent was rock-hard!

 

 

 

To it took me over two hours to get out of the tent and even then I had to move the tent and a few more things into the sun to defreeze them.

 

I left the tentsite at 9h30, but Magnet, who camped next to me was still in his tent trying to warm up.

 

Because even with the late start I had a scedule to respect and so I had to push from the beginning on which was hard due to the frozen ground which had a lot of ice on the trail.

 

I ate before I started to avoid another short brake half an hour into the hike.

 

 

Apart from a 2 minute pause I took to get some water I walked trough until it was time for lunch at 14h.

 

 

I met chilimac who told me about a cabin 5 miles from where we were and that there might be locals giving away beer and having a fire where he could warm himself up.

 

He didn’t wanted to hear that I never dare to get my hopes up for trailmagic to avoid getting sad when there isn’t.

 

When I reached the cabin, obviously there was no-one apart from 3 hikers. “No beer and no fire?”

 

 

Chilimac wasn’t a fan of my sarcastic question 🙂

 

I signed the register and left again to get my miles done.

 

Later in the afternoon I finally saw the first berries since Seiad Valley on trail and I had to stop even tough I was a bit in a hurry because the sunset was getting close.

 

 

There were just so many berries-hayes I could have eaten berries for days here!

 

When I finally reached a good spot to set up my tent I got into it very quick to have a fast dinner and to fall asleep right after.

 

 

 

 

When I left in the morning -I just don’t say anymore that the nights are cold but they still are- Chilimac was packing up his tent 10 feet away from me and I ended up talking with him for 15 minutes before I really had to start moving to avoid getting too cold. Yes I still hike in my extra short pants 😉

 

Shortly after that I saw a guy smoking pot on trail and I questionned myself if it would be really necessary to do that so early especially because he did not support it. I heard him coughing long before I saw him an even after I passed him. He was so high that he didn’t noticed me while I passed him by 2 feet.

Sometimes you need to rescedule your day because of the awesome views. This one for example made me have an early second breakfast.

 

 

While I had a short moment with cellphone service I ordered a quilt for Fabienne to be delivered to the last town in America to avoid paying 50$ in shipping and about 80€ in taxes. I just have to carry it the last 80 miles into Canada…

The whole day I walked on ridges with no space on either side of the trail, so I had to have lunch at a dirtroad. At least the view was awesome 🙂

 

After missing a spring which was slightly off trail I had to hike for 8 miles without water. In the desert I would have had to walk back to get water but because it is quite cold I don’t need to drink a lot and I was fine until I reached the next source.

 

I decided to have an early rest at 18h45 instead of 19h30 to avoid getting into the dark but having 12 instead of 10 miles tomorrow into town.

 

 

My batteries are running low because of the night I played with my phone for 4 hours so no netlix for me today to be sure to find my way into town tomorrow 🙂

 

 

 

I woke up early and wanted to get a good shot of the sunrise with the drone and so I decided to not snooze the alarm a few times but just get up.

 

Ready to fly by 7am! But the batteries were to cold and I couldn’t fly 🙁

 

At least I had the possibility to get to town early. But even tough it is tuesday I continued running into dayhikers, all of the highly interested in the trail and so I lost easily 10 minutes per hiker.

 

 

But where was I rushing too? If I’d arrive at noon, fine! If I’d arrive at 2pm, no one would care. So I just enjoyed myself and the trail while walking town into the ski resort.

 

I got a room, had a shower, started charging me stuff and then went to the gas station to get my resupply-package, some beer and a double cheeseburger 🙂

 

Back into my room, I sat down an drank a beer while I was eating the burger, then I drank another one before I grabbed the third one and lay down on the bed and watch the last MotoGP race which I obviously missed on trail.

 

Later I went to a trailer in front if the gas station where the hikers gathered and I got 2 hikers to split the room with. Paying 30$ is better than paying 100$ and I dont mind if there are more people in the room, the two queensized beds were more than we needed.

 

We ate curry, drank beer and whiskey and everyone told their best trail-stories until 9pm when I decided to go to bed.

 

 

I must be so used to the thin matress and the tent because I woke up at 2am and wasn’t able to fall back asleep until 5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all got up around 8, packed our stuff together and went to have breakfast. Delicious pancakes and all you can drink coffee 🙂

 

 

I bought a loaf of bread to have something for breakfast the next 7 days on trail and hiked out at 9h30. I used the cellphone service to make a few calls while I started the long climb.

 

6 miles and 3000 feet of elevation to start the day with, but reaching the top made me forget the effort I did put into getting there.

 

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