It turns out that walking in wet shoes and socks for 15 miles isn’t as terrible as I envisioned.  I thought my feet might suffer and figured I’d develop a blister or two, but the opposite has happened - my feet feel fantastic.  So does the rest of my body.  We crossed the river 55 times today (of course I counted) and the cold water did wonders for my feet and legs.  The only time I stopped hiking was to purify more water and dig a cat hole. 

What a delight it was to not have to carry more than 1 liter of water at a time and not have to wonder what the next water source would be like.  Technically, I didn’t have to carry any water since the river was always right there, but stopping every time you are thirsty doesn’t make sense. One liter at a time was perfect. 

The terrain was mostly flat and, when you stayed on the trail, it was fast.  Slogging through the knee-deep water didn’t slow me down as much as I thought it would, and only once did the water reach the bottom of my shorts (I’m grateful I’m tall).  The only time I really got slowed down was when I lost the trail.  Since we were essentially following the river I never felt lost, just inconvenienced.  I’d just keep going, bushwhacking my way through grass and trees and undergrowth, and would stumble upon the trail again soon enough.

One of my favorite moments of the day was when a butterfly (a yellow swallowtail like the one I photographed yesterday) landed on my finger.  She didn’t stay long enough for me to photograph but it was magical.

Now we are here at Doc Campbells Post.  Our resupply is huge - over 6 days worth of food - and I am not excited about carrying it.  No, wait.  Let’s reframe that.  I’m looking forward to the challenge of carrying it.  :) I’m not 100% sure it’s all going to fit in my pack, though - Nick might have to carry the cooking pot for a day or so until I eat enough food to open up some space.  We’ll see.  (My pack is smaller than his).

Tonight we are camping behind Doc Campbells with Vivid, Denver, and Cody and Bodhi.  There have been a lot of hikers here throughout the day, though, picking up resupply boxes and showering and such.  Mr. Fabulous, Mona Lisa, Clean Sweep, and even Nature were here, as were most of the people we shared the hostel with.  It’s always a little jarring for me to enter back into the world of socializing but it’s been great to catch up with the hikers I know and to meet new ones. 

One new hiker I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to is Kenya, who is a hiker from Germany.  It’s obvious he loves hiking because he only started 9 days ago.  He said he doesn’t stay in towns, he just briefly stops there to resupply.   He is a machine.  I made him talk to me in German and I actually understood everything he said to me!  My ability to speak German is still horrid - it takes me forever to formulate what I want to say and my pronunciation is awful. Still.  I love being able to test out my skills. 

A big part of my afternoon was spent trying to upload info for the blog.  Sadly for everyone out there following along, the internet isn’t the greatest (and there are a lot of people using it, which doesn’t help).  I’m not sure I’ll get anything uploaded.  

And, of course, we did laundry and took showers.  The shower was hot and heavenly.  Since the water comes from the hot springs, you definitely don’t have to worry about running out of hot water here (worrying about how long you’ll have hot water tends to make showering a hectic experience). Even the toilet seat is warm to sit on - it makes us feel like we are at a fancy hotel or something.

We have a zero scheduled for tomorrow but we’re not sure if we are going to take it.  We definitely want to see the cliff dwellings and go to a hot spring, but we might end up doing a nero (a near-zero mile day) instead of a full zero.  I feel great and of course, want to push on, but Nick’s strategy of slow and steady is definitely the way to go.  I know a few hikers who are nursing injuries, like Lush and Twerk, and I’d like very much not to join their ranks. 

Along the trail:

Camp: