Date: 2016-05-26
From: Punchbowl Shelter

To: Three Pines Hostel
Miles today: 11.3

Last night was a nice night. I slept in my tent at Punchbowl Shelter. I set my tent up right next to the pond and it was great. The noises in the wilderness are awesome. Bugs, birds, frogs, the breeze. I slept great, which I guess is no surprise considering I barely got any sleep in bear land the night before. I was up pretty early around 6:00am. It was kind of funny because Rucker was making her breakfast in the vestibule area of her tent and she watched me get out of my tent. It takes me at least ten minutes to be able to walk normal because my feet are sore and stiff every morning. So she watched me slowly hobble towards the privy and jokingly told me at my pace I might be back to my tent by noon. I could not help but laugh. I eventually got myself all packed up and left the shelter area around 8:00am. I started off feeling ok, but it warmed up quickly and I found myself lacking energy like the day before. The good thing is I only had a 11.3 mile day to get to Three Springs Hostel. It was a lot of down hill today and that is harder on my legs and feet then uphills. I went at a very slow and methodical pace. Eventually the trail reached a creek and followed it for several miles. It was much cooler down along this part of the trail, but the black flies were out and they were a big pain in the butt. It was really beautiful down there though. There was mist coming off the river in spots and it smelled really good. I also passed over many small bridges, some of which were very unique. I hiked pretty much alone for the day with the exception of a little bit with Grey Ghost and Five Star, both of who I met at the shelter the night before and both super nice guys. I finished the 11.3 miles at 1:30pm and called the hostel to come get me. I also got Five Star and Grey Ghost a ride into Buena Vista from the same folks who run the hostel I am staying at. I was feeling run down and tired when I got to the hostel. I would have liked to have just taken a nap but I had stuff to do, like shower, laundry, eat pizza, drink gatorade, organize my resupply box, and organize my pack. I also spent some time figuring out where my future stops may be. There are five other hikers here. I remember Hammers name and the rest are alluding me. I am so bad with names. Everyone is very nice though. A few of them have pretty much been sleeping all afternoon and then went to bed really early this evening. I guess they are really tired. The weather has changed dramatically over the last few days from very cool to very hot and humid. It makes the hiking part much more difficult. I cooked a pizza here and had some other snacks. Then tonight I forced myself to eat a camping meal. I have lost more weight this last week and am down to a hundred and forty nine pounds. That is seventeen pounds I have lost since March 28th. Today I went over the 800 mile mark on the trail. I am getting there. Tomorrow I am going to slack pack 25 miles of the trail. I will be hiking in a day pack with only food and water for the day and these folks at the hostel will bring me my big pack at the end of the day. There is a fee of course. A lot of other people do this so I figured I would try it. It should help not having all that weight on my feet. So we will see how it goes.