![]() Pizza Hut, you will forever have a place in my heart on trail. After the weather cleared and at some point as I was descending some other valley with beautiful rolling hills, I met a different trail angel who was out for a walk with his dog that directed me to his car where there I found many goodies of which while my body might not delight in them oh my mind so did. I met a couple locals along the way who gave accurate indications of the weather and all signs pointed onward. They hung back to have lunch and I pushed on into my first gusty conditions with a light sprinkle and semi curious gray clouds in the distance. Yes I did the service of acknowledging that thoughtful individual and guzzled it down. I don’t know, somehow sore forestry service thing, but there was my first Trail Magic: A local IPA. We rendezvoused with his hiking partner who had gotten off to an earlier start, Sam, and after some touching go reconnects, we landed at Kentucky. It was fun to talk with somebody who had done the PCT last year and then just jibber jabber about lots of things. A few thousand feet down I stopped at a lovely creek and a little while after Joe Dirt from Utah caught up to with me and we kept a pretty good pace for quite a while. It was actually really nice coming through a desolate wilderness at sunrise facing east into the Arizona sun. I got off to a 6:25 start and immediately descended the beast we met summitted yesterday. Since I am a cold soaker and Jenny had a stove, needless to say we enjoyed dessert. My glorious Charlie angel, Annie, who drove me to the start from Tucson airport had provided some Mexican hot chocolate. After both pitching our tents we each ate our dinner in a little huddle: she a couscous mix and me a split pea soup mix. Jenny was a mother, on in here years, who was a slow and steady trucker and joined me at the camp spot. It was 64.8 at the peak of somewhere with an elevation of 6563 feet that I immediately found a tree-protected spot to stop. Good Sierra practice I kept telling myself. I’ve trained at Haleakala with elevation and weight. Short story: the trail through Temporal Gulch is no joke. The time was 4:30 and I had already well hit my mile goal of 20. Eventually I found some bearable looking water that with the filter and chlorine tab is fine, but then it came down to finding a camping spot. After a few disappointing stale pools and that after nine miles from town I had a solid three liters in my bag, I just kept trudging on. Routing and mileage for me is largely about water. ![]() After that lovely stop at RMF with a seriously damaged in transit resupply box, I pushed off for what I thought would be about mile 61 and I would have been a-okay with a slightly lower mile count if it provided a chance to enjoy being in camp. Getting into Patagonia at 51.2 was just the first half of my day. ![]()
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