I was awake  before 2 dozing.how light does it need to before I can hike .at 4 am I pulled the stopper on my exped mattress. Iove the sound of the roar of air escaping.

I unzipped my tent door and peered  out in the darkness. In the distance you could see the lights of Lorsdburg twinkling. Not long now snail I said.

I began to pack up and was almost finished when a beam of light came out of the darkness.

I introduced myself.this guy had hiked this trail twice. Omg!

He gave some great tips.then he was gone.i finishes my packing. .put on my headtorch  and slung on my pack. I must admit to feeling a little worried about navigation inthe dark considering I have got lost in daylight.

I set off and found it easier to see the trail with my light off.thank you moon. My light didn’t seem that powerful maybe new batteries are required. 

I was doing well. Few  double checks  and soon I was approaching the exciting prospect of cow water. 

I put down my pack  and took my two empty bottles  to the cow trough. The water was not  that bad.a few floaters  but  still fairly clear. I submerged my bottles one at a time. Then I popped in a bleach  tab to sterilise the water. Once done I slung up my pack and began to search for the trail. There was one tent still here the others having long gone.

I located the trail and set off. It  Wasn’t great the first part was littered with rock which I struggle with and  my earlier pace had now gone. 

Luckily  it was over cast today with a great breeze. I came to my first fence  crossing of the day. I want able to step  over this one  so pack off  i  rolled beneath the wire. Then grabbed my pack.

I took 5  to get my breath back. Then I was off and making good pace that I missed a water source. Dam,but I have enough

I took my first  real climb ,su h great views so took a  another break.. As I was  chilling zero came by.  We said our hellows then he was gone.

I removed my two bottles and squirted  a good squeeze  of Milo into each bottle. Milo is a  electrolyte. It’s also to disguises the taste of the bleach from earlier.

I transfered the contents to my bladder which was  was almost out. I repacked and I was off.

As I passed  a great  tree  i noticed my two colleagues  hawkeye  & kevin resting we caught up on pleasantries.  And I  fell in at the rear. We  had gone about an hr  when I needed a break. And there wa the perfect  tree. We sat here for about  30 min. But the miles do not do them selves. So time to go. We hadn’t gone far when a  lady rancher.  ppeared on  her quad/ gator. she was missing 2 cows we said there were two down by the tree.  We chatted a while we thanked her and off we went.

Our next target was another water tank.

Soon we were here and there was shade.wow and the water was good. As we relaxed a stream of other hikers appeared,grabbed water and left

Then it was time for the Boys to leave .I stayed a little longer  before setting  off after them.

I appeared to have a great pace  as I crunched the miles . 

Snail I heard a voice.it was hawkeye  and Kevin who had found a great tree with massive shade.

Now I should have stopped and joined them but as I had pace  I wanted to crunch more miles.

MISTAKE…

I pushed on thinking shade would arrive  but it never did and it was getting hotter . But I still apeared to have I great pace so on I went.

I frantically began searching for shade   nothing maybe over this hill nothing. I soon met a Sobo.

Any shade I asked. Sadly not but water is in a mile.!

Wow  I had  pushed miles  but I really wanted shade.

The cache soon came into view. And as usual no shade. I sat beside the box  debating my options . Which turned into several hrs . Eventually hawkeye and Kevin arrived.  

They filled up on water and then decided they wanted 3 more miles as it was still early

I watched  them go .

I was just about to leave when Cal arrived he’s one of the CDT shuttle drivers .he was checking on the water and restocking.

He was so chatty it took a while to leave.

It was cool  as the wind had now got up.i wanted 2 more miles if possible to make an easy walk  to Town. 

This part of the trail seemed to have  many climbs. I was hoping for flat.i pushed on  as the wind grew more fierce. Mm no where to put my tent. After several more climbs  I came to a sheltered river bed.Maybe that  will do!

But as I explored  it, it was still too windy.  Hopefully it will die down I hoped. 

I set up  but my  tent flat  but didn’t pitch.then git ready.but I had a banging headache  too much sun.

I put on a brew then cooked some dinner. I m still struggling to eat maybe the heat.

Dinner was tasty and the wind  had now died down for me to put up my tent.

But it was still too hot to get inside. But was cooling

milage 15