I slept really well last night. It was probably the best night of sleep on the entire trip so far. I woke up at 5:00 so I started reorganizing and packing things early. I still have not gone through my food bag to see if I need food or not. If I do need more food then I have to wait till 8:30 for Aldi to open. That means I will probably not get to start hiking until 9:30 or possibly later.

Breakfast at the hotel is probably the worst of the trip so far. It is either Cheerios or Raisin Bran cereal and bagels. No protein whatsoever. And the orange juice machine shoots out water that isn’t even colored orange. The coffee machine is not any better. It ends up shooting out something that looks weaker than iced tea. It has a faint coffee flavor but that’s about it.

After going through my food bag and reorganizing everything, I figured out that I don’t really need to buy any more food. But the Subway next door opens in about 5 minutes, so that would be something delicious to pack out for lunch. So I go grab a sub and wrap it tightly and put it next to my umbrella.

I tried Uber and Lyft again just to see if by chance they have drivers that work the morning just not the evenings. No such luck, but the taxi is now open because it is after 8:00. I call for the taxi and by the time I get my pack and go to the front, he is already there. Way faster service than last night.

I am at the trailhead and hiking before 8:30. This is far earlier than I was expecting to be able to get out of this town and that is a good thing.

The first few miles are all walking in grassy areas adjacent to fields.I purposely wanted my damp socks on because I knew I was going to get wet this morning. I am not soaking wet, but my feet are definitely far from dry.

The morning is a mix of 2 miles of road 2 miles of trail 2 miles of road, etc.. On the second or third roadwalk I can see two walkers way ahead in the distance. By the time we are close enough to see each other, they are indeed hikers because they have backpacks and trekking poles.

It turns out they are The Honeymoon Hikers. They hiked the AT for their honeymoon several years ago. They have hiked many different trails including the Mountains to Sea trail which they said had the worst road walks they ever experienced. They have also thru hiked to the Appalachian trail four times.

We exchange emails because they have a complete list of all the trail Angels for all chapters. I only have the ones at the beginning in the end for getting shuttles to and from the trail. The list is massive and it will take a long time to sift through what I actually need. The hardest part is figuring out what section I am actually in at any given time.

They tell me the rest of the trail westward is quite desolate and they needed to rely on the trail angels quite frequently. They also said the trail is pretty wet in many places. I reciprocate on intel on the eastern side. After the 15 minute chat we part ways and they let me know of another hiker a day behind them named Eric.

I continue my road walk to the last trail section before it turns into a longer 10 plus mile road walk. It is 11:00 by the time I am just about done with the last trail section so I go ahead and stop and eat the first half of my sandwich. It is good, but not scrumptious.

By noon I am on the major road walk for the day. The roads all morning have been very desolate with only one car per hour in most cases. There are only two short sections on busy highways, but they pass by quickly.

I end up at a small bridge over a creek when it is time for the second half of the sandwich at 2:00. There is a concrete railing and it makes a great sitting spot to eat and take my shoes and socks off and let my feet dry.

My shoes are dry enough but the socks are still damp. I change into my dirty but dry socks hanging from the back of the pack before I leave.

I go ahead and mix my coffee, but I don’t drink it until 2:30. It is a Cafe Bustello plus a sugar packet. I am still amazed at how little time needs to elapse after drinking coffee and sugar before my energy level increases. 10 minutes is all it takes in most cases.

The weather all day has been divine. The temperature in the afternoon is almost identical to the temperature in the morning. There has been very heavy cloud cover all day, and I haven’t even seen the sun. This is perfect because the temperature probably never peaks above 72 or 73°. I only break a sweat on steep uphill sections. Most of the time I am cool and only barely clammy.

The big roadwalk section ends at a snow park. When I arrive it is full of 20 or 30 kids doing some sort of exercises. The leader of the group talks to me for 20 minutes or so and tells me about the various features in the snowpark that are available to Ice Age Trail hikers. The main thing I am interested in is a water. I started from the hotel with two and a half liters and I still have a half a liter. I have hiked 23 miles and only drink two liters of water. That’s how cool it is today. And that also included making coffee.

After I get my water bottles filled, the caretaker drives around and it’s time to chat with him. I chat with him for at least 30 minutes. He tells me some of the history of the park and how he had to convince the snow park to solicit the IAT to bring the trail into the park 30 years ago. We talked about all sorts of topics – the space shuttle, real estate, IT technology, and of course hiking and skiing.

Other than water and electrical outlets, the main attraction for IAT hikers is the shelter one mile up the trail. It has electrical lights and outlets. I will go check it out, but I’m planning on trying to go a little further.

I have spent an hour talking to people so far, but there’s still plenty of daylight left. When I get to the shelter there is another hiker with his hammock strung up inside of it. The Honeymooners said there is another hiker named Eric behind them and this is indeed Eric. In fact he already knows my name so that Honeymooners have let him know about me heading his direction.

Eric and I spend at least another half hour talking. He was considering hiking the Florida Trail so we talk about that for much of the time and how it is both similar and different to the Ice Age trail.

It is now close to 7:30 and I only have about 1 hour of daylight left. I was trying to go three more miles but it’ll probably be closer to two. I need to make sure I can get to an area that isn’t private property so that I can camp.

I am hiking it a really fast pace at this point. I tend to do that late at night just from the adrenaline. But I am so well rested from my three long conversations that I’m cool and don’t want to work up a sweat. I tried my best to slow down but it is nearly impossible. My body just wants to hike fast.

By the time I find my camping spot I have worked up a little bit of a sweat. So after I set up my tent I immediately go find a big rock to start cooking dinner on. It is essentially dark now, and I only need the flashlight for very delicate things. Most of my cooking I can just do in the dark.

I am trying to spend as much time as possible outside of the tent to cool down before jumping in. There are a few mosquitoes but not too many. At least not enough to drive me into the tent.

I only have mashed potatoes for dinner and I am still trying to perfect making the potatoes in the same bag they come in. When you pour two cups of water into it, there is only a half an inch of room at the top of the bag so you have to stir carefully. You also have to stir thoroughly because all the special flavorings are at the bottom of the pack. This is Wisconsin cheese potatoes and I don’t want a lot of cheese dust at the end of my meal. Even though I think I have done a good job of thoroughly stirring the potatoes I discover towards the end that I indeed have big chunks of dry cheese wads.

I still need more practice on this particular cooking technique. I don’t want to cook the potatoes in the pot because I don’t want to have to clean the pot. I am in Bear country and I don’t want to have to hang everything I own in the trees at night. As long as I only boil water in my stove pot I won’t have to worry about it attracting bears.

Emotion of the day, Happiness

Today was a really good day of hiking. Even though it was a late start it was an hour earlier than I was expecting. That definitely made me happy and set the mood for the rest of the day.

The thick clouds kept all of the heat of the sun away. And yet it never once felt like it might possibly rain. The weather today couldn’t have been more perfect and that also made me happy.

And discovering that I had enough food to make my next stop without buying anything else also made me happy. Buying the sub to pack out was just icing on the cake and something else to bring happiness and joy to the day.

Seeing three more hikers and having good conversations with them also made me happy. Talking to the two men at the snow park was also fun. I had nearly two hours of breaks just talking with people, started 2 hours later than usual, and I still managed 26 or 27 miles.

The weather forecast for tomorrow has also changed from being hot to being low 70’s almost identical to today. Tomorrow will be at least 30 miles so that is really good news.

How can I not be happy about how today turned out?