Waking up at 6 am is fine as long as you get to sleep at a decent time. Ten for me, so 8 hours is a win in my book.

I go to the lobby to see what they have for breakfast items. I am delighted to see two kinds of burritos. Not breakfast burritos, but real burritos. Beef and bean with green chilies. A hot red one, too. They are as delicious as a burrito from a microwave can be.

I am in no rush today, as I want to be sure that I don’t try to go too far today. I need to be serious about pacing myself for the first week. 16 is my target. There are two campgrounds at that distance that I can choose from.

Today’s weather is nice. It is not cool and it is not hot. It is mostly overcast and it will stay this way all day. I was expecting hot, but I will consider overcast a win.

The trail snakes around an industrial area on a gravel path for about a mile. Then it turns into full on rail trail. This will be the treadway for the entire day.

The trail crosses many roads, but none of them are busy with traffic. The scenery changes from forest to corn fields to meadow to riverside all day.

The bugs are not bad in most sections, but a few areas are thick with mosquitoes and deer flys. I decide it’s time to try Mr Dragonfly. I have a rubber dragonfly that I can screw on the top of my tent pole sticking up out of my pack.

After an hour, I declare him ineffective, but I like his company so I will keep him for now. The bugnet is on my head for about 20 percent of the day.

I pass thru a small town with no services at about noon. I want to cook soon, but I only have enough water left for cooking and not for drinking. There is a park by a dam in about 2 miles which I should be able to hit by 1. I will cook lunch there.

As luck would have it, there are apple trees along the side of the trail here. They are small and not yet fully ripe, but they will quench my thirst. I eat five of them and I am no longer thirsty or hungry. Perfect timing.

Various flowers line the trail. This patch had two completely different flowers that were identical colors. I took pictures of about a dozen flowers, but I will spare you the drudgery of having to see them all.

The park at the dam was nice. The water was not so nice. It tasted like mud. I had clean water to cook with and drank about a liter of pond water flavored with a nuun electrolyte tablet. Lime mud tastes OK.

It was just a few more miles to the campground, but the camp store was disappointing. They had ice cream and literally nothing else. No water, no soda, no snacks. Ice cream sandwich it is. I was hoping for a Gatorade.

The campground was a good call. I was tired when I arrived, but revived quickly. If I had stopped for a break and not checked in, I would have been tempted to keep going another hour or two. It is only 4 pm and plenty of daylight left.

I look to see what is 16 miles ahead for tomorrow and it turns out to be the center of a town with a haunted hotel. If the Delta trips can book a room for tomorrow, then I am there. I check out the Delta website and they can book it for $108 with a $100 coupon and now I have a room with a shower for tomorrow night exactly 16 miles from here. I don’t have to worry about pushing too far tomorrow. And the hotel is cheaper than this campsite, which also has a shower.

Emotion of the day, Excitement

It is exciting to have the first full day today. The rail trail is nice. The scenery is nice. The fact that I have a rock solid plan to not start out too fast is icing on the cake. The overcast skies were nice, too.

I have well over a thousand miles left to hike, but it is exciting to be back on trail again. Only 22.8 complete, but that is still exciting to me. It’s a brand new experience on each different trail.