Day 3 - Frog Spring - mile 1298.5

Last night I got into camp so early that I had hours to spare. For the first time ever I listened to a book on tape - the first Harry Potter book. Wow, what an experience! I read it when it first came out years ago but I've seen the movie many times. It was wonderful to have the films images to fill out the spoken words.  There is so much more detail in the book plus the voices are fun to hear as well. I listened for about 3 hours and had to force myself to turn it off. Looking forward to listening again tonight. 

Around 8:30 last night I decided to go ahead and set up the tarp. It was cloudy and windy and I didn't want to have to run around in the rain if it started later on. Unfortunately I was lazy and didn't set the end flaps cuz I'd never put rope on them, never having needed them in the past. Around 3am they started whipping around, hitting the underside of my hammock. I wasn't going to be able to sleep through that so I had to get up, find my extra rope, make leads and stake them out. Crummy timing but it was easy enough with the bright moon. At least it's a done deal and the tarp will be effective in any storm now. 

I woke up to my alarm at 6 am and lazed there for a bit. Till I remembered the heat and how I don't like walking when it's hot. I got to walking about 7:15 and the next 6.5 miles were a walk down memory lane. 

This was the section I had to hike when I was injured last year. I kept thinking to myself "How did I hike this with my hip not firmly in the socket?" Fortunately it was not a particularly difficult section and I walked up to Cold Spring at around 11am. 

A nice walk and I am glad to know I made it past that section. I don't think I realized just how worried I was something would happen to me again in that section. Silly I know but I'm relieved it is behind me. 

I spent 2 hours there, rinsing out some clothes and eating lunch. A foursome of 30-something thru hikers joined me, then a couple of 50ish guys joined us. They have been section hiking for years and had good stories to tell. It was nice to chat with them and since I've been where they are going I had some intel I could share. 

The next 2-3 hours were spent walking on new-to-me trail. I spent some time in a burn area where to new trees are coming on strong. 

And the flowers smelled as strong as they were pretty.

It is a tradition to put some kind of natural trail marker off the side of the trail when you reach 100 or 1,000 or ?  Today there was no trail space at 1,300 so someone put out a 1,299.9 sign. 

I didn't plan to go all the way to Frog Spring today but I couldn't find any suitable trees way up this high so I had to hike the last uphill, even though I didn't want to do it. That puts me at 11 miles for today. Not bad. 

Frog Spring is a two inch wide trickle but it is clear and tasty. I found some trees that worked though it's a bit funny. I have a small tree under my tarp tonight. 

One last obligatory photo of tonight's dinner. One of my very best favorite, Thai Chicken. It looks ugly but with peanut butter most things are good. 

I have excellent reception here but once I drop down into the Belden area I don't know if I'll be able to post to this blog. Not to worry. I'll catch up later on.