Day 55 – 6/16/13 – 16.5 mi (948.8)

We got a fairly early start, all things considered. Ninja and Stryder caught a ride with a Bloodbath and Rampage who had a local friend take them back to the trail. Sweetfish, LoveNote and I had to hitch. A guy told us he could take us to where the highway split up to the pass and we accepted. LoveNote and I rode in the truck bed and we sent Sweetfish up to ride in the cab and do his thing. The truck didn’t stop at the split and the man took us all the way to the pass, very out of his way. Awesome!

When we got to the pass, there was quite a congregation of hikers: Ninja, Stryder, Bloodbath, Rampage, Bo, Wired, Rockin’ and new to us hikers The Green Flash, Portrait, and Castle. And they say the CDT is a lonely trail!

The weather was fickle, spritzing on and off all afternoon. We met a chatty rockhound along the way and LoveNote made the mistake of showing interest. He ended up giving us rocks – exactly what we need in our packs!

We didn’t get quite as far as we’d hoped, but it was still a good day with some nice scenery and good company. We are camped tonight with Wired, Rockin’, Bloodbath and Rampage.

I forgot to mention a couple days ago we learned of the passing of Sam Hughes, the 84 year old man who drove me and countless other CDT hikers to the border in New Mexico to start our hikes. He was a legendary part of the CDT community and will be greatly missed.

The Daily Ninjup Report
Ninja did her highest number of push-ups yet, 12, in camp tonight, in the rain! I think this is an acceptable makeup for the yesterday’s zero Ninjups day.