Started: Deep Creek (313.5)
Ended: Tentsite (333.8)
Distance: 20.3 miles.
Achievements: Twenty Mile Day

We had a later start today. Camping with us was a young pre-med student who wrapped Chef’s foot with the hope that she could hike on. Chef told us to go and it wasn’t long before we were texted that they had left the trail. Our goal today was at least 15 miles with a stretch goal of 20. At a water source at Mile 318, there was a note in the sand that there was Trail magic at Mile 328. That is what you call hiker motivation.

When Fishtank caught up to me, I told him the news, and he asked how I knew and I was “It was written in the sand, it must be true!” Needless to say, he spent the entire day not believing me.

The three of us have come a long way since we started. It was hot, with many ups and downs, but we just muscled through, not really even tired at all.

We reached the trail magic at mile 328 about 2:30. It was put together by two former PCT hikers, Swiss Army Knife and Hee Haw. There was all you could eat hot dogs, chips, soda, beer, and Snickers bars. As this was the 15 mile mark for us, we could have stopped there, but we decided to continue to complete our quest of a 20 mile day. We are going to have to complete 20 mile days regularly if we hope to finish on time.

By 6:30 I found a single tent site for the three of us, and we are cowboy camping beneath the stars, victorious.

Tomorrow is going to be hotter and we have a long water carry to get past, so we will hike eight miles to McDonald’s, rest there for the most of the day, and hopefully complete a simple 15-mile day.