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.