Start: 0700 - near Devils Postpile
End:  1730 - near Rush Creek
Miles (today): 18
Miles (cumulative): 983.5 (839 PCT, 91.5 alternate, 53 off)

What a pleasant hike today!  Not even the mosquitoes can spoil my mood, although a mob of them are making every attempt to find some bare skin from which to suck my blood.  At the moment, my thumbs are the only place they have a chance (I'm wearing light gloves but need my thumbs to type so they are sticking out). Otherwise I'm covered head to toe - I'm wearing my long pants with my long socks pulled up as high as they will go, my rain jacket with the hood up, my neck gaiter, and a mosquito net over my head.  I know I look pretty ridiculous but I can't say I care.

The morning sunrise was beautiful (I missed getting a good pic of it) and after breakfast I set off to conquer the trail.  After two hours I stopped to take a short snack break and was passed by Sunny and Killer.  Killer and I started talking and suddenly I'm hiking with them - it was wonderful!  As I hiked with them I thought about how I seem to hike much faster when I'm following others - it's as if I've always had a bit more speed in me but didn't realize it.  

When I ran out of water at 1030 I had to stop and wait for Nick, which made me sad - Sunny and Killer are great to hike with and I hated to see them go.  While I waited I decided to check the Halfmile app to see if it was working (the GPS hadn't been working the past few days).  To my horror, it said I was 10 miles off trail.  What?!? How could that have happened?  I sat down to gather my thoughts and decided it just wasn't possible.  I was just about to panic when the app updated and told me I was right where I was supposed to be.  To help out the GPS I temporarily took my phone off airplane mode and discovered I had service (we rarely have service on the trail!). I responded to a few texts and then went back on airplane to save my battery as much as possible.   

The tent was really wet when we woke up this morning, so during lunch we laid it out to dry.  It was a pleasant lunch - since we had service, we called our resupply guru and all around awesome mom to discuss food matters (and to catch up on the goings on in the world).  Cedric joined us for lunch, too.  

By 1230 I was ready to get going - I had been there for 2 hours!  I made sure Nick wasn't going to forget the tent stakes (like we did at Lake Morena, the last time we laid the tent out to dry) and then set off.  

It was a beautiful hike - I really enjoy the Ansel Adams Wilderness.  

After lunch I was passed by a hiker named Roswell and we started chatting a little.  He hiked really fast but I decided to try to keep pace with him - I mean, how am I going to improve as a hiker if I don't push my limits every now and then?  I was able to hang with him for a little over an hour and then I had to call defeat and take a snack break.  It was fun to talk to him, though, and I hope to run into him again.

Shortly after that, I bumped into Sunny and Killer and so got to hike with them again.  :) Alas, we ended up missing a turn and following the wrong trail for a little while.  Thankfully, Turquoise had done the same thing and was coming back to correct her mistake so we didn't get too far.  Since it was a little confusing, I decided to wait for Nick to be sure the same thing didn't happen to him.

Nick showed up an hour later (I used the JMT southbound hiker communication system and had two ladies (one of them named Beth) tell him I was waiting for him).  I had such a long break that I was ready to attack Donahue Pass.  Nick said he wasn't ready for that, though, so we stuck with our original plan of camping just below the pass so we can do it in the morning before the snow gets soft.  I'm ok with that - it means I get to eat and go to bed super early (before 2000!!)

Along the trail: