Day 7 Camp by the River

Ryan left early, I got my usual scrambled eggs, biscuit, apple juice, blueberry muffin, and a strawberry banana yogurt from the hotel and then went up to the room to get packed up. Dave and I walked to meet Nick and the guys down at Betty's country store so I could give him his re supply food he was storing in Ryan's car, and so I could see if they had another knee brace. Betty's is such a cute little country grocery store! They only had medical wraps so I got one and made it similar to how my knee wrap hugged the upper and lower part of my knee cap. I waited out front for Karen the taxi driver to pick me up and bring me up Tray Road (the right side!) she drove a minivan and it took us about an hour of driving 5mph on a bumpy, dirt mountain road. We talked about her children, travel, jobs, enjoying the hike and not busting your balls if you skip some miles here and there, and how my natural beauty reminds her of Sandra Bullock (how sweet of her!) once it was time to say goodbye to vehicles, I headed on my way up the dirt path, North. I started hiking in my crocs to give the sores on my ankles and heels a rest from re-opening up. I took it slow but enjoyed myself. I got to Tray Gap sooner than I thought I would and felt a lot better without the pressing pain given every step with my boots so I hiked on. I saw Rocky the Flying Squirrel (whom I see every day, he has two cars and hikes southbound so all us northbound hikers run into him all the time.) he said Lynn was only about a half hour ahead of me so I got excited and my spirits were high to meet up with her. Well my Camelbak ran out of water, I was starting to get hungry and I was loosing daylight. At around 6pm I sat on a log, ate some trail mix, and drank some of my Gatorade mix and then pressed on. Soon after I got to a sign that said water .5miles, I knew I wouldn't want to trek that down and back so I decided to eat dinner down there to clean my pot after and hope to find a spot to camp. When I got down there it was a perfect spot, easy river accessible, big fire pit, and plenty of room for tents (even though tonight I was singular.) I filtered water with my pump, got water boiling for my broccoli and cheese screw Knorr pasta that Ryan left me and started to set up my tent. I hung my first bear bag, and was feeling quite accomplished of myself doing it by myself. I got in my tent around 8:30pm when the sun was starting to set and figured if I went to bed early I could wake early to catch up with Lynn at blueberry patch hostel. I got in my sleeping bag, pulled my knife out of its sheath and placed it by my side and fell asleep. I woke up to when I thought it was 3am but turns out it was only midnight (guess that's what happens when you try to go to bed at 8:30...so I was wide awake, feeling lonely, so I took out my journal and wrote a page, from there I read Justin's letter to me and felt a tiny bit better, but still wide awake. I decided to take out my iPod and look through my phone of images, 90% being the baby I started to tear up thinking about her and how much I miss my family. I finally fell back asleep around 2:30am and slept until 6:50am.