Day 51 – 6/12/13 – 26 mi (895.6)

The snow has just melted, the nights have warmed…they have arrived. You know, the they that starts with a mo and ends with a squitos. Thankfully, this time around, I am wearing a shirt that they can’t bite through.

The morning was easy walking on old forest roads and by lunchtime when we hit highway 114, we’d done 16 miles.

We spent much of the time planning our menus for our upcoming zero days in Salida and Breckenridge. The rest of the time was spent hashing out rules and discussing strategies for the “100 mile food challenge.” It goes something like this: for 100 straight trail miles, you are only allowed to eat one food. The food must be something you can purchase as a single item at the grocery store (ie, no peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as that would be 3 seperate items). The strategy part is fascinating. You need to chose something that will keep for several days, not weigh so much you can’t carry it, and be something that you won’t mind never eating again, because surely you will detest it by the end. Some ideas kicked around were pizza, peanut butter filled pretzels, Snickers, ramen, and chocolate chip Clif bars. We’re going to take a few weeks to let everyone decide on their item before actually playing.

At the highway, while the rest of us ate lunch in the shade, Sweetfish decided to hitch into whatever town he could get to for some real food. We went on our way and began a 22 mile dry stretch, all uphill of course. We stretched break times, procrastinating the climb.

We only got another 10 miles done, but it’s still a good daily total. Just when we decided to call it quits for the night and camp, Sweetfish showed up…with dinner for all of us! He’d packed out pizza and all the fixings for cold cut wraps, including an entire head of lettuce! It was awesome to have real food and to not have to cook.

Since the mosquitos were so bad, we are all sleeping in our tents tonight. This meant story hour, Fifty Shades of Gray, required some creativity. It turns out my Z-packs Hexamid Solo Plus can actually fit 5 very friendly adults.

The Daily Ninjup Report
Done.