Started the day by getting up at 6:30 and packing up right away. Decided to make breakfast before leaving the campground. One thing led to another and I was on the trail by 9:00. I honestly don't know how I spent 2.5 hours doing the few things I did.Said goodbye to Ken and Tatiana. I would say I hit the desert today. Very dry air and lots of sand. Walked the crest of the hills for most of the day which lead to some awesome views.
The water source I went to was fed by an aquifer that was pumped into a tank which then was moved to a cattle trench. The water in the trench was pretty nasty, so I put my bag right up to the outlet (was below the trenches water line) and tried to avoid getting as much green stuff as possible. I filtered it and added my chlorine dropped just to be sure.
From there it was a long hard push to the next campsite. My leg and feet muscles were very tired by the end of the day. When I purchased my shoes, Matt from the Sport Supply Store said, "It would be wise to do lower miles the next few days to let your feet adjust to the zero drop shoe style." I didn't really take his advice too seriously. I definitely felt it the last 5 miles which were mostly downhill. Tomorrow I will take it easy and do less. Or, have more breaks in the day.
Was at the campsite around 6:00 pm. Ate dinner, stretched, took a couple Aleve, elevated my feet and rested. My dinner was a rice mix I made up at home. It tasted amazing.
As I was cleaning up from dinner, Beast Master (someone I met day 1 and we are constantly passing each other while the other takes a break) walks by and we chat for a couple minutes. As he is getting ready to continue on he says, "you know what man... I'm going to call you Sunshine from now on... Because you always have a fucking smile on your face. What do you think about that?" I think about it a couple seconds and say, "Alright I'll take that." So my trail name is Sunshine.
Write this blog and elevate my feet for the rest of the evening. Will try to stay awake long enough to see the starry sky.