Month: August 2024

Today is a day of rest. A few days ago the forecast said that today would be solid rain all day long. I made the decision to push here into 3 days instead of four. It was definitely at the limit of what I could do this early in the hike given the spacing of campsites and road walks. But I made it, here I am, let’s rest up.

As forecasting often goes, as the week went on the forecast got less and less dire. It is still supposed to rain on and off all day today but light amounts not heavier amounts as earlier predicted. That’s fine, I still have a lot of chores to catch up on from the last 3 days. My feet are also pretty tired. But luckily no blisters yet.

The area I am in is a bit spread out, but has everything that I need within 1 mile. The most important is the Hy-Vee grocery store next door. Next door being a half a mile away. This grocery store is so big they’ve built a drive through bank looking facility just for picking up online ordered groceries. Inside they have the largest selection of about everything I have ever seen in a grocery store in my life. My first priority is to not buy too much. The second priority is to buy things that look interesting.

Laundry is also a big part of the day. I’m going to also try and clean my pack a little bit as it is accumulated some mud and dirt. It also smells pretty bad.

Blogging is another chore to catch up on. Since I have been hiking untill almost dark every day, I haven’t had much time to write each day’s entry. For the last 3 days I have only written notes of the day and not the entire blog. Today I will have to catch up on the last 3 days, plus today. I schedule each post to go out many days after I write them so that I can catch up when I don’t have good cell signal or the time to write them live. This is one of those situations.

The breakfast at the hotel was interesting. They have the usual eggs cooked in a giant bag with bacon sliced so thin you can see through it. The usual toast and bagels and muffins are there as well as oatmeal. But the bowls for the oatmeal are gigantic. An entire ladle full of oatmeal only covers about a quarter inch of the bottom of the bowl. I like oatmeal, but not that much. They also have the standard juice dispenser machine, but this one also has grapefruit juice. The problem is the grapefruit juice tastes like pure sugar, so I’ll pass on that one.

Zero days are sometimes really fun in a town like Damascus, Virginia where there are a million activities to do. But camped out in a strip mall that could be in any metropolitan area in the country, it doesn’t have the same charm.

Since I expected today to be rainy and didn’t really want to go out side too much, I bought a prepared lunch from the grocery to eat today. It turns out it’s raining so little that that was not really a need. Oh well, one less chore to do today.

Catching up on all the blogs takes until about 2:00 in the afternoon. Now I turn my attention on the next few days of the hike. The next town up the road is Verona, which is a suburb of Madison, where the University of Wisconsin is. I find a series of campsites that can get me there in 3 days. When I check hotel availability everything is booked up solid for the day before during and after I expect to get there. There is definitely some big event going on in that town during the same period. There is a distributed campsite in that town so that will be my target.

One of the campsites along the way is a county park that asks that you request permission beforehand. I make a call to the number listed and they get back with me within a few minutes letting me know it is okay after taking my personal information. I can probably expect to visit from the local sheriff that night.

I also plan out the next few days after that. I will end up at another state park at a point where the trail splits either west or east. This is the bifurcation point and you get to choose which direction you go. They both have a lot of road walking in them and not a lot of camping options. They are within about one mile in length from each other so that is not a factor.

The Western route looks like it will require too many heroic 35 mile day walks. I was originally planning the Eastern route and the camping options look easier that way. But the Western route does have hotels within walking distance. It also happens to be within Uber distance of the Eastern route. That day of arriving at the bifurcation and choosing where I’m going to stay, I am going to leave as a day-of decision.

When dinner time comes, it is not raining but looks very ominous outside. I decided I am just going to eat in the food court of the Hy-Vee since I have to go there anyway. I bring my umbrella with me just in case.

Inside the grocery store, there is a Wahlburger. I have never had one so let’s try it. It was nothing to write home about. Yes, I understand the irony in that statement, and the fact that I am writing about it.

One of the planning chores that I did this afternoon, was figure out where I could stop along the way for lunches or dinners. There will actually be for lunches and dinners I will be able to catch along the way instead of carrying. So I have factored that into my shopping list.

I find everything I need but it takes a full hour because the store is so huge and I am not familiar with the layout. In the end, I end up visiting every single aisle. I can tell already that I have bought too much again.

It is raining slightly by the time I exit the grocery store so I am glad I brought the umbrella. When I get back and repackage everything for the food bag it is probably more than I need considering the number of meals I will buy along the way. I think I overestimated the amount of cheese I need for this section but I want to supplement breakfasts with more fat. I will be eating a lot of cheese over the next few days.

Emotion of the day, Relief

Planning a zero day ahead of time can end up backfiring on you. Are all my chores done so early that I feel guilty or are bored for the rest of the day. I was relieved to find out that I was actively doing chores until 8:00 p.m.

And even though it didn’t rain as hard as the earlier forecast had suggested, it was still raining hard enough during periods that it would make hiking unpleasant. So I was relieved to be spending productive time indoors today.

And even though it took far longer than I expected, I now have the next 7 or 8 Days planned out. With so many long road walks it can be complicated to plan out where to stop. I am relieved to have the next week taken care of in that regard.

I am also relieved to find out that my feet feel better today than they did yesterday. There is always amount of hiker hobble that starts up in the morning and takes a while to work out. By the time lunch rolled around, it seems like I wasn’t having to warm up the feet so much.

So it’s comforting to know that today was a day well spent not hiking. It is a relief to know that today was not wasted, despite not hiking any miles.

Today is the same kind of morning as yesterday. Get up early, eat breakfast, and don’t lollygag. Breakfast one is granola. It was a local brand I had never heard of and is really good. I just eat it dry without any kind of milk.

In fact, I have thrown out all my milk powder. I have carried it over 1400 miles without eating any of it so why have I carried it so far? I did actually try some with my granola about a week ago and it only made it messier and added a bit of time to clean up my cold soak jar.

I carry an empty peanut butter jar to cold soaked foods I don’t want to cook but it can be a hassle because it’s difficult to clean. And if you don’t clean it regularly, it can get quite disgusting. That may be something that I ditch at some point, too. But I do really like eating cold Ramen out of it.

I was out of the campsite at 6:02, which is my earliest start yet. The campers next to me never made a peep all morning. They are still asleep.

This campground has many loops, and the Ice Age Trail is supposed to intersect it in two different spots. But I don’t want to risk having to double back if I don’t find the right trail that exits, so I decide to just backtrack where I entered the campground. It’s only an extra hundred yards.

The trail within the park is a little longer than I expected for the morning. It was closer to two miles when I was expecting only one. It doesn’t matter very much as I know once I hit the road I have less than a mile to the artesian spring. This is my primary target for the morning.

In the guidebook they say that locals the lineup to fill their water tanks. And that is an accurate statement as it is not even 7:00 a.m. and there is already a truck filling a tank in a trailer that they are pulling behind them. They leave just as I arrive and see the spring for the first time.

It’s an amazing sight. It’s a small mortared section of stones with a pipe coming out of the side of it. The pipe is open at the end but has two other pipes welded into it. One of the pipes is facing downward as a spout would be to fill containers with. The area of the ground is covered with metal grates because the amount of water that flows out of this thing is immense.

There is an entire little Park here with a picnic bench and a garbage can. There is a sign that says a man dug this well by hand in 1855. When he reached 55 ft the water started flowing and has not stopped ever since. The water tasted good but was not the most amazing water that I have ever tasted from a spring. But it was 12,000 times better than the water from the campground. So I dumped out both bottles, rinsed them well, and filled them both to the lid. I also cameled up by drinking as much as I could tolerate before refilling the bottle again. I should not have to refill for the rest of the day as it is only about 18 miles to the first town of Milton and the trail is a mix of road and paths.

I have about five or six miles of road walking before I hit the first section of trail. It is about 9:00 a.m. when I hit that section and I am sleepy again like I want to take a nap. I think I need to start introducing fat into my breakfast as granola is just two carb rich.

The other negative is that this trail section is grassy meadow and I am about to get my feet soaked because it is still too early in the day to have burned off the morning dew. After that, more road walking.

The roads before the trail were typical corn and soybean fields. The roads after the trail are a little more rural residential but there are still some Fields here and there. The shoulder is narrow but the traffic is light so it’s not too bad of a road walk. But most of the road is an exposed Sun so I am already lathered up and using the umbrella by 9:00 a.m. and end up using it most of the day.

At noon I am hungry, but I am still too hours away from the first town of Milton. There is a giant tree providing shade in the middle of the road so I just stopped there and eat my lunch.

I bought a French baguette that is not fully cooked that you are intended to take home and finish cooking to crisp up. This turns out to have been my favorite meal of the trip so far. I was originally going to make little sandwiches with summer sausage and cheese. But I am also carrying butter and olive oil so I’m using that on the bread and love it. More of this, please.

The road did end up having more shade later on, but it was still hot so I was still using the umbrella most of the time. I was expecting to enter the town of Milton on rail trails, but it was really just a sidewalks intermingled with some jogging paths. There was a Bonnie nursery as I entered town. They had many huge greenhouses which all seem to be full of dead plants. Most of them were 90% empty anyway.

My target was the Piggly Wiggly which was two blocks off the trail. And my mind for the last 2 hours has been set on ice cream because of the heat. So I bought a pint of vanilla ice cream and a Green Goddess juice. I went ahead and bought a small Powerade so I didn’t have to bother with getting any more water. The ice cream was quite refreshing. This is probably going to become a habit.

This town was larger than I expected, and took about 2 mi before the houses started to disappear. But the road walking transitioned into a dedicated trail but didn’t look like a rail trail. Two down, but six more to get to Janesville.

After about a half a mile and crossing another road it did become a rail trail with huge trees on both sides. It was a Forrest Gump moment but more importantly it provided shade for the afternoon. The shade only lasted about 2 miles as the rail trail gave way to road walking again. After another mile or so it was back to dedicated bike paths. This would be my last 3 miles to the interstate where the hotel was.

The bike paths went behind many people’s houses. At one house there were two ladies who called out to me “are you hiking the trail?” I spent about 5 minutes talking with them. They both enjoyed hiking the various sections nearby, mainly The Kettle Moraine I just finished. Neither of them could imagine spending 2 months hiking the entire thing. That is a common thing when you talk with locals who are even know what the Ice Age Trail is.

At last, I finally made it to the interstate at about 5:30. This is where I exit the trail and walk along the sidewalks under the interstate. There are many crosswalks and a lot of traffic so it takes a while to go the one mile to the hotel. It is a brand new Townplace suites. And it is in a major shopping district, so all the services I need should be nearby.

Near the hotel on the sidewalk along the interstate, I come across a hawk who has just caught a rabbit. He tries to fly away with the rabbit but can only make it about 10 or 15 yards before he has to land again. It is too heavy for him to fly any distance with, and he is not about to give it up to me. We spend a few minutes dancing around each other until I can get by him without forcing him to leave his dinner.

Shower is the first order of business, as usual, and dinner is the second. I have several choices but I decide on Mexican again. But this time I will just get a simple burrito so that I’m not too stuffed. I am not disappointed as the burrito is quite delicious. But unfortunately I am stuffed again. Third world problems.

The Hy-Vee grocery store is on the way back to the hotel so I decide to stop in and check their selection. And if it is raining tomorrow, I will not want to walk out into the rain just to get lunch so I will buy some kind of prepared lunch that here that I can warm up in the hotel room.

This Hy-Vee is a very impressive grocery store. It is huge and has an incredible selection. I choose an Asian meat skewer on lo mein for lunch tomorrow. They also have soft baguettes so I go ahead and buy one since I know this will be a staple of mine from now on.

Outside the grocery store is also impressive. Instead of typical curbside delivery they have a whole sequence of lanes that look like a bank drive-thru teller complex. You just pull into an empty lane and they cart out your groceries and load them into your car for you.

It begins to rain gently as I approach the hotel. I was carrying my umbrella with me the entire time just in case. Because before I left the hotel the weather app showed a gigantic front headed directly my way within the hour. I couldn’t have time today’s events anymore perfectly.

Emotion of the day, Elation

Other than being hot and tired, today was a perfect day. I woke up and got out on time this morning. I didn’t have to scrape too many slugs off the tent while packing. And the artesian well was better than I expected. Eating a pint of ice cream on a park bench was also a pleasure.

Lunch was delicious. Dinner was delicious. And I got to actually speak to humans today. Knowing that rain is coming and that I got everything done before it started also made me happy. The forecast now doesn’t show as much rain as they were predicting earlier in the week, but rain is rain and I will be indoors for most of it.

Good food, a hot shower, and missing rain are just one notch above good. One notch above good is elation.

Today is the moment of truth. It’s barely two weeks into the journey so a 35 mile day today is a little bit of a risk. If I ramp up mileage too quickly then I run the risk of injury. Having the option of stopping after 28 miles takes the risk away.

I wake up at 5:00 and start my morning activities on time, but I’m moving a little slow this morning and don’t get out till about 6:15. This is still an acceptable time to leave, so no harm.

The morning walking is mostly through meadows. Meadows mean grass. And grass in the morning means dew. And 4 hours worth of dew means soaking wet feet. In fact my feet were soaking wet within the first 5 minutes. This is part of hiking in the east.

What I didn’t factor in to the equation is the terrain of the hiking today. Everything has been roads or paths or meadows with a few little hills thrown in here and there. But today is downright hilly. The hardwood vegetation with rocks and roots on the trail and the grade of it make me feel like I am hiking in Virginia on the Appalachian Trail. The climbs are not as high but it is definitely not level travel for quite a bit of it. This is going to impact my schedule for today. I am shooting for the distributed camp area which is the last place to camp before the road walk into Janesville.

My first target for the day is a visitor center which I should reach before lunch time. They are reported to have bathrooms water and if there is staff there is probably food or drink you can buy. That ends up being the case and I buy a small Gatorade because the day is getting quite hot. The grass is mostly dry now so I decide to switch into dry socks while I am there with a bench to sit on. It’s not quite time for lunch yet but I grab a small snack, too.

I reached the horse camp right around noon which was my original day to camping spot. But with my accelerated schedule it’s now a lunch spot. There are two other hikers there just leaving as I arrive. They are the first overnight hikers I have seen on this trip so far. One of them is a girl about to graduate from the University of Wisconsin who plans to start the Appalachian Trail from Trail Days in Damascus next year. She is out for a week this year as practice. Good for her.

I eat my lunch and refill my water bottles from their water spigot. They have running water here but only pit toilets. There is supposed to be a shower here but I don’t readily see it and it’s kind of an on time to take a shower anyway. So after my lunch is done I move on. And just as I am leaving another overnight hiker shows up to stop for his lunch. This is the most hikers I have seen in one day.

The terrain is becoming a factor in my schedule. It’s amazing how much the section feels like Virginia. Instead of doing 3 miles an hour I’m doing closer to two and a half. That may not sound like a big difference but after 12 hours it’s a huge difference. It means I won’t be able to do 35 today but 28 is definitely probable.

I go ahead and book two nights at the hotel in Janesville, and a campsite in the state park where I will end up tonight after 28 miles. I selected the campsite that is adjacent to the trail to minimize the amount of extra walking. The schedule is set it is etched in stone. Now I can hike the rest of the afternoon knowing exactly what my targets are.

I would see a fourth hiker pass me while I was eating my afternoon snack. For overnight hikers in one day and it’s not even the weekend, well not seeing any other overnight hikers the entire trip. What an odd day.

I arrive at the campground at about 7:00 p.m. which is essentially right on time. I will have an hour and a half to set up camp clean up a little bit collect water and cook my dinner.

The campsite is huge compared to my small tent. It is a sight that could fit a 40 ft trailer but I’m only taking up three feet of it. I am also in a small grassy patch behind a tree so it looks like my campsite is empty other than the few items I leave on the picnic table to dry out or at least air out overnight.

Water in this campground is from spigots one at each end of the loop. The water must come out at 120 PSI cuz it’s nearly impossible to hold a water bottle under the flow. There are only pit toilets and no showers. The lake is too far away so I will just use my handkerchief to clean myself tonight.

While the water is plentiful, it is disgusting. It tastes and smells like diesel fuel. There is an artesian well 2 mi into the hike in the morning so I will only collect enough to cook my dinner tonight and have a small bit for the two mile hike in the morning. This water is far worse than the iron tasting water from the hand pumps a few days ago. If the lake weren’t so far I probably would have just filtered water from the lake instead.

The campground is mostly empty. The only other campers that are even within eyesight are in the spot right next to me. I bet they think it is weird that I’m in a big campsite with just a small tent. Whereas they have a pop-up trailer and three vehicles. I only have two vehicles – my left vehicle and my right vehicle, both size 12, made by Saloman.

Emotion of the day, Calm

Today would determine when I would reach Janesville. Would it be 3:00 in the afternoon,or 6:00 in the evening? Either way I’m still reaching Janesville tomorrow. What time really doesn’t matter after all since I’m taking the day after that off so I don’t have to do any chores tomorrow night.

While I would have liked to have done 35 today, the terrain just wouldn’t allow it. Doing a 35-mile day on the Appalachian Trail would have to be exceedingly flat terrain. There are a few places where you can do it but Virginia-like terrain is not one of those places.

Even though I didn’t make the final call till after lunch, I still didn’t feel pressured. I actually felt sleepy about 9:00 in the morning and thought about taking a nap on the side of the trail. I must not feel too much pressure if I am deciding if I should take a nap in the morning.

Being able to make the hotel reservations for both nights without any issues was a relief. The Holiday Inn Express in the last town was plan B because plan A had filled up at some point during the day. I prioritize Marriott over IHG over choice purely based on the number of points I have with each group.

Making a reservation at the State Park campground also gave a huge amount of calm. Trying to find a campsite in some random forest that you’re not familiar with is always hit and miss. Much of this area is private land where you can’t camp. And much of the public land is so heavily vegetated you couldn’t possibly squeeze a tent in anywhere. Having a reserved campsite means all of that stress completely evaporates.

Even though I was pushing from the beginning of the day, I never felt pressured. And as the day progressed I felt calmer and calmer. Even if I had showed up at the campsite an hour after dark, there would still have been very little pressure. The campsite was there. The campsite was mine. No worries.

Breakfast is always the first order of the day. I am in no rush today but hey… priorities. Holiday inn Express used to push their cinnamon rolls as the gimmick to hook you in. But the sad truth is that they’re a bit dry and not really that good at all.

Laundry is the next chore as most of my clothes are pretty nasty. In between running to the guest laundry room I’m repackaging and packing my food. I can’t pack the pack yet because clothes go at the bottom.

I also have another exciting chore today. 2 miles into the hike I will walk right past a post office. There are several things in my pack that I just haven’t used on this trip and don’t plan to use for the rest of it.

One interesting choice of things to send back as my 360° camera. It takes awesome videos and being waterproof I can do things with it that I can’t do with my other cameras. But I’ve only used it twice on this trip and after losing my tent pole when I took my umbrella out I keep my tent pole in a different location now. It’s in a location where I can’t reach while I’m hiking so I haven’t used that camera except for the first few days. It weighs about 5 oz and that’s enough of a factor for me to decide to send it home. I also send home a mini tripod for the camera that I always hold in my hand.

Among the things that I decide not to send back is my little dog water bowl that I use as a washing machine. I never used it on the Florida Trail and I haven’t used it yet on this trip but I am expecting the second half to be far more remote and having to hand wash laundry a significant portion of the time. We shall see if that was a good decision or not.

I am able to get all my chores done and packed up and leave the hotel by 10:00 a.m. which is a pretty early start considering all the chores I still had to do this morning. The walk through town is nice. I passed several cafes that are serving breakfast/brunch and I’m tempted to stop but there’s no reason to.

When I mail my things back at the post office I asked them what the weight of the box is and it ends up being 14 and a half ounces. That’s nearly a pound I don’t have to carry anymore and my pack actually feels lighter. You really can feel 1 lb. Every time I pull my water bottle out to drink I can tell it’s not on my back anymore. And that is 2 lb full.

After the post office, the trail changes to bike pads. It is just a scenic as entering town. This would be a pretty cool place to live but I’m not sure I could handle the winters. The trails also intersect with cross country ski trails. This town was definitely geared towards people who love the outdoors.

For my lunch break, I am targeting what they call an indoor shelter. And when I get there I find out what they mean. It is like a visitor center but there’s no one there. Half of the building is just an open space with tables and chairs and a wood burning stove. The other half are flush bathrooms. Oh, the luxury of indoor plumbing.

The trail through this section of the park is mostly through meadows and up and over eskers and kames. A kame is just a singular mound of a hill, whereas the esker is like a ridgeline. They are both just piles of rubble left over from the melting glaciers.

They route us to one particular game that has a tower built on top of it. It’s not quite as tall as a fire tower but pretty close. The viewer top is far above the trees so you literally can see probably 50 miles in each direction. In fact I think I can see the skyline of Milwaukee. Either that or Madison. I’m not sure which direction Madison would be from here.

One of the areas I will reach today is called the Niagara escarpment. All of the glacial features so far have been related to rocks and sand deposited by the melting glaciers. But as the glaciers advance they push all this rock and soil off of the harder bedrock below. This area exposes the dolomite that the glaciers could not push away and this is the same bedrock that goes all the way to Niagara. It is also why there is a peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. There is an interesting artificial wall made of some of the flat stones that are exposed in this region. The dolomite is easy to spot because it has solution holes made into it where The Rock has unevenly dissolved over time. It’s similar to the formations in the Everglades on the Florida Trail that made man-eating holes you could accidentally step into.

There is not that much road walking in this section but there is some. The cool part about this road walking is they actually have cut a trail in people’s front yards about 20 yards from the road. That is good on this section because there are no shoulders on the roads and many blind hills to make road walking unideal.

I end up reaching the distributed camp area by about 5:00 p.m. This was my original stopping point for the evening. But the weather forecast shows very heavy all day rains on Thursday. This would be the day that I am hiking into the next town from the last distributed camp area on a 21 Mile road walk.

There are still three hours of daylight left. There is also another area where I can camp about 8 Miles away. After looking at the maps I figure a schedule where I can actually take a day out of this section and take a zero day in Janesville while it is raining.

If I can shave a full day out of this section, a zero day would not impact my schedule at all. It means doing 28 miles today even after starting late at 10:00 a.m., then doing either 28 miles each for the next 2 days, or doing a 35 and then a 21 for the next 2 days. The first scenario is definitely doable. The decision is made let’s go to the next camp area tonight and push hard for the next 2 days. I will try and get up and start hiking before 6:00 a.m. tomorrow to make the 35-mile day a possibility.

The best time for me to hike are those early morning hours from about 30 minutes before sunrise to 2 hours after sunrise. The second best time is just the opposite. The last two or three hours before sunset. Hiking in cooler temperatures without the sun beating down on you is always more pleasant.

About 1 mi from the place I was planning on camping I find a nice wide open space where I can pitch my tent far from the trail. This is probably a better location than where I was intending anyway. Let’s go ahead and camp here. There is some breeze so the mosquitoes are not bad at all.

Emotion of the day, Robotic

Robotic isn’t really the right term it’s more like overly analytical. The morning was getting all the chores done so quickly that a drill instructor would be impressed.

Looking at the weather, looking at the maps, figuring out where to camp, figuring out what the schedule would look like. These are all the logistical things that go on during a through hike that people who don’t through hike don’t really get to see. It’s not just a walk in the woods with a bag full of goodies.

There is a lot of planning involved, both before and during a hike. A schedule is just a schedule. The terrain the weather unforeseen circumstances all make the schedule just a suggestion. It is boots on the ground that make it happen.

Walking through the city, walking on bike paths, walking on path to people’s front yards instead of on roads for the most part, all this takes away decision making. The miles passed by quickly.

So today it was all about logistics, and feeling a bit like a robot. If I could figure out how to walk while sleeping I probably could have slept half the day while hiking today. But then I would have missed half the scenery.

I slept well last night and woke up about the time I wanted to, but I didn’t get out until 6:30 a.m. when I was shooting for 6:00. It wasn’t warm last night but it wasn’t cool. It was one of those odd in between temperatures. But I guess it was cool enough to keep the mosquitoes away.

As I was packing up to leave I could hear church bells ringing not too far away. Apparently they were from the Catholic church at Holy Hill. I wasn’t able to see it until I was nearly an hour away and it was too small to take decent pictures of.

The trail this morning was a constant mix of meadows, woods, creeks, and hills. It seemed like it would change at least every half mile. There were a few short road walks mixed in to get from segment to the segment.

It is Sunday morning so the trails are filled with day hikers. I probably saw 50 hikers this morning. It was sunny but cool and breezy so it would be a perfect day for just about any sport.

There are several places to stop and get water today. But as long as it remains cool I think I have everything to need until my first stop at the convenience store which I should hit around 1:00 p.m.

The trail follows a river for several miles that has so many letters I can’t spell it. It begins with O and ends with OC, and includes many M’s and W’s. We crossed it a few times on various bridges. I even heard some kayakers at one point but the vegetation was too thick for me to actually see them. [Edit. Oconomowoc River]

The last four or five miles to the convenience store is mostly road walking. There is one small trail section a little over a mile that detours away from the road and then back later on. I could probably have shaved a mile if I had skipped the trail section and just stayed on the road. But the trail sections have been nice so I went ahead and stuck to the trail. I’m not sure this one was actually worth it but at least I’m keeping it as pure as I can.

The last mile and a half of the road walk was a little unnerving. It had just enough traffic to keep you from being able to walk on the road. And the shoulders were either steep or filled with thick vegetation and there were a few blind hills. But once past the convenience store, all that would change.

The convenience store was just a Mobile gas station. But they had a small deli inside so I was able to get a fresh ish sandwich and some pasta salad. I grabbed one Gatorade to keep me hydrated through the rest of the walk into town which is about 7 miles. I also drank a Dunkin donuts coffee as my afternoon caffeine. There were two picnic tables in the breeze where I could eat my lunch. It was one of the best gas station lunches I’d ever had and the bathrooms were immaculate. No, seriously, this gas stations bathrooms were immaculate.

Just a few tenths of a mile from a Mobile station, the trail turned onto pathways through town. This one started as just a walkway about 5 ft wide but it was paved. It weaved in and out of parks and around streams behind people’s houses. At least five of the next seven miles would be exactly like this or dedicated trails through woods. The remaining two miles were through neighborhoods with no traffic.

It really was a pleasant hike through the small town of Heartland. I could live here. Except not in the neighborhood by the golf course that they sent us through. The house is there were just gigantic.

The last half mile was along a golf course. And then the trail spit me out at a Walgreens just a few blocks from the hotel where I was headed. Where I’m staying is only two blocks off the trail which is convenient.

Two blocks in either direction are all the stores I need tonight. First up is a Sierra store. I have never been there but it looks like they have some form of sporting goods. It is organized really oddly and I think that there is nothing I need here until I walk by the cash registers and find stove fuel and dehydrated dinners. I don’t need stove fuel yet but it’s good to know that this chain sells it. But I am in need of three dinners so I might as well buy three of the brand of dehydrate dinners that I like which is Peak Refuel.

Chore number two is to get change and soap for doing laundry but I won’t actually do it until morning time. I will plan a late departure again because I only need to do about 15 miles tomorrow.

Chore number three is to get dinner. I have my choice of Five Guys, Applebee’s, or a local brewery. Went in a new town always pick local. I ordered just a chicken sandwich with a side salad and the sandwich was enormous. They actually stacked two chicken breasts on top of each other. The sandwich but must have been 8 in tall when they brought it to me. I just pulled one of the breasts off to eat the sandwich with one and then just ate the chicken piece later by itself.

Chore number four was getting groceries. The first rule of buying groceries is always do it on a full stomach to prevent your stomach from buying too much. Even though my stomach is full of chicken I think I still bought too much cuz it feels too heavy for 3 days worth of food. Not to mention I already have the dinners in the room. Things could get ugly tomorrow.

Emotion of the day, Relaxed – Again

The only hurried part of the day should have been waking up and packing up and getting going. But apparently I was relaxed then because I took an extra 30 minutes to get going.

But I never felt hurried during the morning or the afternoon. I was expecting to get to the hotel by 4:00 which is perfect timing for doing chores.

I took more breaks during the morning. After 9:00 a.m. I was just feeling a little lazy. I had eaten enough for breakfast it was granola and a Danish. But carb meals don’t keep you going the way fat meals do. So I was snacking most of the morning.

Getting a good lunch at the Mobil station gave me energy for the afternoon. I don’t think I took any breaks all afternoon but I easily could have. I just didn’t feel the need to. It was just a nice surprise to be walking on trails 7 miles to the town instead of on sidewalks or shoulders the whole time.

it was just a relaxing, sunny day. The kind of day perfect for taking a hike or just about any other outdoor activity.

It took a very long time for me to get to sleep last night. My body’s metabolism was still very high and making me hot. I had to have the air conditioning down to 65 just to stop sweating. The muscle fatigue also made it hard to relax and fall asleep. But I did finally get to sleep about midnight.

Breakfast was a sad affair so I basically ate yogurt and decaf coffee. I was in no rush to leave today so I didn’t get set off until 9:00.

The trail resumed right at the crosswalk across the highway into the woods. The trail took me around a pond and across the road where there was another pond. The way the trail signs were pointing it looked like I was supposed to start walking down the road to my left. After about a quarter mile it didn’t feel right so I checked the map and indeed I am off the trail again.

The trail went straight across the road instead of along it and I’m not sure how I missed that. Oh well that’s not the first time and probably not the last. The trail keeps winding across a series of cascading ponds. It’s a nice little Park system here in West Bend Wisconsin.

After a few miles the trail turns to road walking. This is more like suburban territory instead of cornfields. It makes for better walking but some of the roads have blind hills. I’m sure the car is coming my direction are as surprised as I am when I see them as well. I think I would rather have corn fields.

After passing through a small community by a lake I get my wish. It’s not exactly cornfields but it’s bigger and wider roads with a much lighter shoulder for me to walk on. There are about 6 miles of this until like get to the trail system again.

Road walking this morning really wasn’t bad. It was partially overcast there was some shade but it was very breezy. In fact it was so breezy that I could not use my umbrella. But I did go ahead and lather up with sunscreen.

The road walking ends with a rail trail that leads into the next town of Slinger Wisconsin. It’s only about 1 mile of walking on the sidewalks in Slinger before it takes you to trails again. But what I am interested in right now is lunch because it is after 1:00 and I am hungry.

I spot the gas station in the middle of town where I am planning to resupply for just one more day of food. To my surprise there is a restaurant right across the street and they have outdoor seating.

After checking out the menu I plan on eating a chicken fajita salad. But once the waitress tells me about the specials that quickly change my mind. The black sheep Burger has feta cheese balsamic reduction bacon bits and arugula on it. It tasted far better than it sounds and it sounds delightful. They’re iced tea was also quite delicious. A little on the weak side but the flavor was amazing.

Resupply across the street takes only a few minutes. A can of spaghetti will be dinner tonight along with a pack of combos. The Gatorade for the pack and an ice cream sandwich for the walk and I am ready to go.

It is nearly 3:00 by the time I leave town. It is only 2 miles to The backpacker campground in the State Park up ahead. But I am not planning on staying there. If I can get about eight more miles of the trail then I can have an easy-ish day into the next town.

My plan was spot on. When I got to The backpacker campsite it was filled to the brim with backpackers with folding chairs and all sorts of things that are totally unnecessary. I basically just waved at them as I walked by and never even stopped.

The next 10 miles or so is a mixture of private farmland and public parkland. From the satellite imagery all of the parklands look heavily wooded. The best looking spots are between 6 and 8 miles from here. That should get me camping by about 6:30 and that sounds perfect.

Yesterday the park signs taught me about eskers and how they are formed. Today they teach me about kettles. I already had the one sign from yesterday show me what one look like. Today signs were more informative and how they actually form with the receiving glacier. Yesterday just said iceberg in ground melts and leaves a hole. Today signs were more nuanced into how they break off, how they get buried, and how they melt away.

The afternoon starts to drag on. My assessment that the tea was weak is indeed correct. I am tempted to make coffee but I don’t need to rush. I will still have 2 hours of daylight so I can afford to lollygag and go slow.

It is a Saturday and there are lots of people on the trails today. In the Pike Lake State Park area I would see a person every minute or so. But even now three or four miles away from that Park I am still seeing other day hikers every 20 minutes or so. It’s a perfectly cool Saturday for hiking so I don’t blame them.

I get to the first point where I think there will be good camping almost exactly at 6:30. But unfortunately this forest is too heavily vegetated to be able to pitch a tent. But only a few hundred yards later I spot a section that looks pretty good. It will be tight but I find a spot where I can pitch the tent without having to crush any saplings. But there are a ton of dead branches that need to be cleared first.

As usual the first order of business is to set up the tent and throw everything inside. There are only a few mosquitoes but I used to the routine. I won’t be cooking tonight since I’m eating my canned spaghetti. Heating it up doesn’t make it taste any better so I just eat it cold.

From where I am camping to the next town is only about 22 miles. That sounds like a perfect Sunday stroll. I will try and get up early tomorrow so that I can arrive at my next hotel early in the afternoon. Yes I am staying in another hotel tomorrow night. Have I mentioned I’m a fan of the hotel rewards programs?

Emotion of the day, Relaxed

Today was a very relaxing day. They didn’t start serving breakfast until 7:00 so there is no reason to get up early. It was a relaxing 2 hours packing and finishing up chores before setting out this morning.

And then knowing that it was a decent mix of road and trails made everything low stress. I had a wide range of mileage to be able to stop for the night, so that took away a lot of stress.

I knew that I would be walking through a town and could resupply and then was pleasantly surprised to find the restaurant as well. I didn’t have to carry much food or water which is always nice.

I even spent 20 or 30 minutes at the Pike Lake picnic area just watching the picnickers. Even when it was time to start moving again and I knew I had to go at least 2 hours before I could find camp spots, I was not worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a spot.

Even though the first camping spot didn’t work out, I was sure there would be another one around the corner. And indeed their was. I wasn’t in any particular hurry today and that was quite a different and relaxing pace to the hike. As long as I get started early, tomorrow should be just as relaxing.

The Kettle Moraine State Park is made up of five independent Park units. I know I have gone through at least two so far but possibly a third. The park establishes a large collection of glaciated features in the region.

The two most common features that I see while hiking are eskers and kettles. Eskers are linear mounds of sand and rock sediment formed as glaciers begin to melt. Streams form at the bottom of the glaciers and all of the sediment was deposited by those streams. When the glacier melts away all you are left with are these mountains of sediment of ancient strain beds.

Kettles are where large icebergs break off from a glacier and get mixed in with the surrounding soil. When everything melts the huge hole left by the iceberg forms a whole called a kettle. They may turn into a lake or they may remain dry. All of the lakes I have been passing were formed by kettles.

I wanted to get up as early as possible today but I accidentally overslept a little bit. Good sleep is better than no sleep so I’ll take it. I am fed and packed up and walking at 7:00 a.m.

Today is very cool and breezy. The weather app says it is 53°, but I am not cold at all. Best of all the mosquitoes can’t really find me in the strong winds. I think today will be an outstanding day.

My destination for the day, however, is uncertain. There is a shelter at about 20 miles which would leave about 10 MI to where I could potentially get the hotel. There is also a dispersed camp about 5 mi later which would cut the distance to town in half. The problem with either of these as a destination is I will have to kill time tomorrow to wait until I can check in.

The other two options are to either hike the entire 30 mi distance today, or bypass the hotel and keep going tomorrow. The camping options past the town are not great. And after the last two really hot days I am in need of laundry. I will push the morning to get to the shelter to see what time it is and decide then if I should try to make the entire hike in one day or not.

Since this is a state park I can occasionally find signage that explains look glaciated features that I’m hiking on. The guide book has verbal descriptions of them but I can’t really piece together how they actually work. But the signage with pictures makes it very easy to understand. Yay State Park rangers.

I have several water source choices today and they are all streams and a few hand pumps. The first dream that I come to is really easy to access from the bridge. I just have to lean over and scoop up the water. It is also cold and clear which makes it more palatable. Even though it does have a slight earthy flavor.

The hand pumps are not great sources of water. They take 12 to 15 pumps to even get the first bit of water out. They either trickle out a stream like a water fountain or if you pull up a lever it will dump the entire amount that you have pumped up into a spout where you can collect it. They are very convenient but the water tastes extremely iron metallic. So much so to the point where you don’t want to drink it.

The morning goes by quickly, but I am definitely hiking this lower pace. It’s not a consistent pace because the trail isn’t always going up and down but there’s enough interjected in the level Trail that I can only estimate I’m a little over two and a half miles an hour.

I stopped for lunch at the park that has pit toilets and running water if I want to hike a half a mile to the beach area. I am fine with just sitting on the picnic bench and then moving on. If I am going to hike the full distance today I can’t lollygag in a park area.

I reached the shelter just before 4:00 p.m. which is exactly when I expected. There is another hiker that dropped their backpack here and it’s off in the woods gathering wood. There is no flat ground around here to pitch a tent so I’m definitely not staying. I stopped long enough to grab a snack and make a cup of coffee. The other hiker never even knew I arrived, ate, and left all while they were out in the woods.

As I hike past the shelter the next two or three miles have plenty of places to camp. So if I want to stop today I easily can. But it seems so early and I do have time to make town by 7:30 which is still an hour before dark. I am rejuvenated by the coffee and the snacks so I decide to just keep going.

It is not long before I reach the official dispersed camping area. The campsite is horrible so I’m definitely not staying here. The trail has been going through private property for at least the last 3 miles. So if I did want to camp here this is probably the only spot. I’m still on schedule so I keep going.

After less than a mile further, the trail gives way to a road walk. It’s about 2 miles to rejoin more trail section that leads into town. I am 25 plus miles in for the day at this point but at least the road walk will quicken my pace.

The road winds through small homes and there are some corn fields. It has a more homey feel than the previous large road walks. I am enjoying myself so much that I don’t realize when I pass my turning point. When I come to the next intersection where I think the trail turns I find out that I’m already a half a mile past the turn. This is in addition to missing a turn a few hours ago that cost me a quarter mile back track. I don’t need another half a mile backtrack.

After looking at the map, I see that the trail probably went down power lines. The trail was so straight I assumed it was a road. No matter, if I keep going forward I will hit another road that will intersect me with the trail within a mile. After this mishap my extra mile of road walking probably replaces 2 miles of trail walking. Oh well.

Once I rejoin the trail it heads straight up a really tall esker. Back to slow speed again. But I still have time to make town well before dark. The last mile and a half of trail go quickly. And before long I’m descending off of the escrow and I can see the town ahead of me. Best of all I can see a Culver’s restaurant right where the trail lets out. Dinner is served.

The hotel is only two blocks away, but it is only about 15 minutes before dark at this point. The combination of just eating and having your blood surged to your stomach, the cooler temperatures from the Sun going down, and the breeze blowing pretty strongly, make me shiver pretty strongly as I’m walking the two blocks to the hotel. I’m not really that cold but I am shivering pretty badly. So I just lean into it and exaggerate the shivering just to have something to keep my mind occupied.

Once in the hotel, it’s shower time and laundry time. It does feel weird staying in so many hotels, but the high humidity and hot temperatures of the last few days make hiking and olfactorily unpleasant experience. Hiking on the west coast in the dryer climate is definitely a different experience.

The weather today was perfect. The strong breezes helped dry out the grass but the lack of Sun also slowed it. My feet were wet the first two hours which is expected. It was nearly all trails so that was good. All in all it was a pretty good day despite the length of it.

Emotion of the day, Uncertainty

I had so many options today that it was mind-boggling. It was both exhilarating and unnerving at the same time. It was anything but boring.

I did a 27 Mile road walk a few days ago out of necessity. Doing 30 miles today was completely optional. I wouldn’t normally want to go that far so early in the trip but my body kept telling me that it was okay with it.

I was uncertain that even trying this long of a day so early in the trip was a wise thing. For today it seems like the right choice. Let’s see if tomorrow agrees.

Don’t get too excited there’s still a lot of road walking. But the day starts on a trail and ends on a trail so that’s a good day.

Even though the grass was freshly mowed, my shoes still get soaked walking in the grass within about 10 or 15 minutes. The morning is cool but it is full sun with no cloud cover. Luckily there is tree cover so I don’t need to use the umbrella yet.

The first 3 hours of the day feel like a pogo stick. I’ll hike on a trail for a mile then on a road for a mile then on a trail for a mile and a half then on the road for a mile and a half. This repeats all morning until the final one mile road walk into a small town with a restaurant and a gas station.

The only break from the Pogo routine is in Elkhart Lake. This is where the Road America track is. For nearly an hour as I circle around the racetrack I can hear they have an event going. I’m not close enough to see the track like I was with lime rock in Connecticut on the Appalachian Trail. But I did take a little video where you can actually hear the sound of the cars in the distance. But I can’t figure out how to add video to a post. Try the url https://ewokthetrail.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/VID_20240808_0838465472.mp4

It is only 10:30 in the morning, so I will stop at the gas station first and try and dry my shoes out while I drink some Gatorade. I kill 30 minutes then head over to the restaurant and have a brisket sandwich and fries. I bought a coke at the gas station but I will wait until this afternoon to drink it.

The one mile out of town is the last road walk for the day, and it is just now 12:00. I am now entering the Kettle Moraine. I’m not sure exactly what that term means yet but I’m sure I will find out. It looks like for about the next 40 miles I will be crossing roads instead of following them.

The downside to having trails to hike on is that the mosquitoes are very thick and the trail actually has some elevation to it so I’m not hiking as quickly. On the roads I go about 3 mph like clockwork. On this Trail it’s closer to two and a half but can creep up a little bit if the trail is flat.

The way the trails are laid out here feels like the Appalachian Trail. There’s not much elevation change to the terrain but they make sure that the trail sees all of it just because it is different and unique.

That’s what makes the Appalachian Trail so difficult. It was designed to string together existing trails for the most part. And the existing trails in every town where trails to go to the highest point near the town. So therefore the Appalachian Trail goes about as high and low is it possibly can in each particular area.

The trails here in Wisconsin are the same. It’s not everyday you find a mountain made out of rocks and sand deposited by a glacier. So let’s see how many of them we can climb. It’s not as steep as the Appalachian Trail but it is slowing me down a little bit.

Slowing me down is actually better for the body because it distributes the abuse around more areas of your body instead of letting it concentrate on fewer. Walking on flat ground you can overdo it without really even knowing that you’re about to break something. Walking in up and down terrain kiss your body more time to tell you when it’s too much.

The shelters in this park are three-sided concrete buildings with a doorway and two windows on the sides. They have either dirt or concrete floors. You must call to reserve one if you want to use one. I don’t want to use them because I want to be protected from the mosquitoes. But I do intend to camp nearby.

My goal for the day is shelter number four. This would give me a 20 mi day with a mix of road and Trail. I should get there by about 5:00.

But right now all I can think about are mosquitoes. They are absolutely Non-Stop. I’ve got bug repellent on and I’m using my bug net but there’s still annoying. When I come to a highway where I need to cross underneath it through a tunnel there is a really strong breeze. The strong breeze blows the mosquitoes away so this is where I will take my break.

I relax for over 30 minutes in this spot. This is also where I will drink the majority of the coke since it is close to 2:00. Like clockwork before my break is over I can feel my energy returning. Caffeine and sugar is a wonderful combination. To take best use of it I should start hiking now so I can burn the sugar as fast as it enters my blood.

Drinking the Coke does help in the afternoon. But by the time I reached the shelter I am pretty tired. I was going to use this stopping point to decide if I should try and push five more miles or not. The day after tomorrow would be a short 10 Mile day so if I could knock half of it out today and half of it out tomorrow I could actually eliminate an entire day from my schedule.

The shelter is on a high point and there is a good breeze. The good breeze means there’s almost no mosquitoes. But there is no level ground around the shelter to pitch my tent in the floor is concrete. So I will not be staying at this shelter.

Looking at the map at the point 5 mi beyond this it looks like a low-lying area with swamps and lakes all around. I have the time and the energy to make it. But I am certain that it is full of mosquitoes. The next high ground looks to be about 8 Miles and that’s too far for tonight.

So the very next high point I can find is only a quarter mile further on the trail. High points mean breezes and no mosquitoes. And they also mean that the ground is potentially level or at least level enough. As long as the vegetation is not too thick and it is not too Rocky it should make a good campsite.

After only 10 minutes of hiking I am there. The high point on the left is fairly heavily vegetated so it’s not such a good spot after all. But to the right of the trail is a gentle knob that didn’t show up on the terrain map. There are three or four places that are flat enough to pitch tents and look to be free of trees or rocks. I pick one and set up camp.

So with the decision made to stop here, it will leave 20 or 21 miles for tomorrow and about 10 for the day after that. The 10 Mile point is my resupply where there are several restaurants. And there are also hotels.

I will wait until tomorrow to decide if I intend to go into town or to just keep hiking past it after resupplying. I know I will be hiking through little towns where I will only need to carry one day’s worth of food for a few days. But I don’t know what the camping situations are and the mix of Trail and roads. So the 10 to 30 miles after the town will decide whether or not I stop in the town.

Emotion of the day, Excitement

Annoyance from the mosquitoes was a close second but there’s plenty more days for that emotion to win later in the hike.

I was excited to find out there was a restaurant and not just a gas station in the town this morning. I thought I was going to be eating a frozen burrito out of a microwave.

I was excited to find out that this 40 mi section is going to be more hills than Meadows. I like Meadows but they get old especially in the morning with dewey grass to soak your feet. I would much prefer forest trails in the morning to make some miles with dry feet.

Tomorrow should be nearly 100% on real trails and not road walking. Only half of today was on trails. So maybe tomorrow will be twice as exciting.

Breakfast begins at 6:30 but I wish it was earlier. Today is going to be a very long day and I need every daylight hour that I can get. Breakfast is done I am packed and I am out of the hotel by 7:15.

I was unsure how crowded the road would be with morning commuters. It turns out to be much lighter traffic that I was expecting which is good. It also helps that I am going further away from town and the traffic gets less and less.

It is only about 4 MI to a Mobil gas station. I stop to get a Gatorade but end up buying two 12 oz Squirts and an ice cream sandwich. It is not hot out yet but the Sun is in full force so the umbrella is all I have for shade. I down the ice cream in one of the Squirts and head back out.

Once I turn off from the first road, which has been going parallel to an interstate, it turns into familiar cornfields and soybeans. I have about 10 turns for the day so I do have to pay some attention to which roads I cross and which roads I’m looking for to make the next turn.

The next big turn I’m looking for is highway 42. This should have the most traffic I will see all day, but also leads to the bar where I will be getting lunch. When I start walking on 42 the traffic is far less than I was expecting in the shoulder is a good 3 ft of grass in addition to two feet of pavement. I could have started walking this earlier and saved more time if I had known.

I hit the bar right at noon and head inside to grab a fish sandwich and potato wedges. I drink water with my meal but order one Pepsi as a coffee substitute before I leave. It is a little early for the caffeine yet but this will have to do.

The rest of the road walk of the afternoon is similarly unremarkable. This road walk ends when I hit a park and that should be about 4:00 p.m. before I get there.

When I find the park I hit the bathrooms and take a quick little break to snack. They might have running water but the park is so big I don’t bother with going all the way across the parking lot the larger building to find out. I have enough water to get me to my destination so I keep moving.

This park will be about one and a half miles of trails. There are other hiking trails and some horse trails so I will have to pay attention to the turns. Everything is well marked so it is not a problem.

The surprise to me is that these trails actually have some elevation change to them. It’s not steep like many sections of the Appalachian Trail, but it does get your heart rate up and slows you down a little bit. I wasn’t counting on this because I still have another road walk to hit before the trail area where I can camp. This is a day use only Park.

The trails give way to a path between two fields and out to a road again. I am officially road walking again. The road crosses and then parallels the Sheboygan River. This is one of the potential water sources but I don’t like drinking out of large rivers like this.

After 2 mi along the river it turns to cornfields and soybeans again. I only have about 3 mi left to get to the next Park. What I was not counting on is the last turn about a half a mile before the park has a saloon on the corner that is open.

By this time it is already 7:00 p.m. if I stop eat something then I will get to camp in the last bits of daylight. I could also refill water here. But if I keep going I will be at camp within 20 minutes and we’ll have an hour of daylight to do all my chores. There is a creek just past the campsite where I can get water but I’m not sure how good it is.

I decide to just keep moving and get to the campsite as originally planned. The grass is overgrown and hasn’t been mowed in a while so I’m glad I’m doing this with some daylight and not in the morning. By the time I get near the camping area the grass has been mowed very recently. This would be awesome if it was mowed the rest of the way to the South so that when I leave in the morning I will have Short Grass to walk in and not tall grass that would soak my shoes.

The campsite is off a side Trail and up on a hill. They have put the camping post on the flattest part of the hill and a bench on the second flattest part of the Hill. Everything else on the hill is relatively sloped except for one small bump. This is where I will pitch my tent. It’s a bit sad that two of the three best places to camp is where they decided to put immovable structures.

I run down to get water after pitching my tent just so I don’t have to deal with it in the morning. The creek looks decent and I get enough water for tonight and tomorrow morning. After filtering half of the water I begin cooking dinner of lasagna. It is just starting to get dark as I begin to eat so my timing today has been perfect. I don’t regret not stopping at the saloon to eat instead.

Emotion of the day, Fatigue

The morning went by perfectly. I got to my lunch spot on time and never ran out of water. Even though the sun was out in full force, I had a cool breeze most of the day. But the lunchtime Coke was a mistake.

Around 2:30 or 3:00 is when the energy runs out. It’s as if the body knows it’s already done in 8-hour shift and is refusing to work anymore. That’s what 3:00 coffee is supposed to combat. But since I already had my caffeine for the day I don’t dare risk drinking a coffee this afternoon. I just have to push on through the tiredness.

And as usual if you can keep pushing until 5:00 you’ll get a second wind. And that indeed happened today. When I got to the park and was able to use the pit toilet and have a little snack and drink I was ready to go again. But the hills in the park chipped away at some of my enthusiasm.

Long days like this will come again in the trip. They are just harder to muscle through this early in the trip. In another week or two this will just be another regular day. But I will also remember not to drink caffeine too early in the day. Timing is everything.