TRT Day 8

Miles: 90.3 - 104.4

 

Photo: Laser Focused Hiker

Despite wanting to sleep in, my body got up right when the sun rose. Since I went to sleep super late (the internet is too addicting) I was feeling really tired the whole morning. For some reason, I didn’t try going back to sleep and instead just double and triple-checked my plans for the next 5 days and then stressed about the hiking I had to do today. A 14-mile water carry, mostly uphill, with 5 days worth of food in my bear canister, all with only  4 hours of sleep. Oof 😓 I knew I had to do it one way or another to make it back to South Lake Tahoe in 5 days, so I just embraced it and went along with my day.

I checked out of the hotel, went on got lunch with some food to go, and then went to the grocery store to get my resupply. By the time everything was over and I was back on trail it was a little past 1:00 PM. Sun set at 7:45 so I had 6 ½ hours to get to the campsite if I didn’t want to night hike.

After about half an hour of hiking, all the extra weight I was carrying didn’t bother me anymore. I made sure to not put on music or anything today since I was strictly focused on getting to camp. It wasn’t until I checked my map after the first hour that my pace looked like I would get there right around 7:00 PM. Perfect! The only thing I would need to do is take little to no breaks, and to just keep pushing forward. I did have to stop a few times to filter water from my water bladder to my bottles, and breathe a bit while going uphill, but I didn’t take one of my “traditional” breaks of sitting on the ground with my shoes off, feet elevated, with a small nap included.

I anxiously kept checking my map to see if I was still on track after the first 3 hours. Every time getting slightly closer to my destination. I eventually made it to the campsite at Watson Lake in exactly 6 hours. I was extremely happy. All that time in the morning I spent stressing myself out was all in my head and was for nothing. With my current plan, the next few days don’t require me to do any drastic mileage so I’m happy for what's ahead.
 

 

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