Day 89 - Sunday, July 25

Tenting at Scott Mountain Campground (mile 1560.2). Walked 31.0 miles today.

Got up and out of camp quickly this morning. Tons of other people showed up after we went to bed last night apparently. This morning's sunrise was fantastic, a fiery red color due to the smoke (which didn't translate to the camera).

Frank and I set off and had a gentle climb, walk along a ridge, and then descent down to a water source where there were a ton of other people, day hikers included.

I had looked at the water situation for the day and saw that there was a long, 18-mile stretch without water. After Frank and Hocus Pocus looked at the water situation, they pointed out that I had been wrong.  There were several sources along the way and we wouldn't have to do the long water carry that I had wrongly announced. I stubbornly insisted that I was going to carry water for that long stretch anyway...just on principle at this point.  After loading up on water, we hiked toward a trailhead a couple of miles away.

When I saw in the comments of the app that we use that there were pit toilets there, I jumped ahead of Frank and hiked fast to get there and take advantage of them.  Prior to this trip, I saw pit toilets as things to use only if I absolutely had to and now they've become an unexpected luxury. After that, we hiked most of the way around a bowl of mountains and through a very volcanic-looking outcropping of red rock before climbing up and over a saddle.

We hiked fast all this time and just before 2 pm, we arrived at a spring. Frank, Hocus Pocus, and I ate lunch here and chatted. I hiked on slowly and Frank caught me after a couple of miles. I was exhausted this afternoon and just wanted to sleep, but I kept plodding along behind Frank.

We walked along some ridges and the smoke began to clear a bit so that the views became a little better. We kept hiking along and eventually J-PRO caught up with us at a water source. We all walked the final couple of miles to camp.

There, we had the second luxury of the day: sitting and eating dinner at a picnic table. Lenore, Phantom Dooker, and Hocus Pocus all showed up, exhausted but thrilled at their first 30 mile day.