Day 92 – 7/23/13 – 23.5 mi (1627.8)

It took a good second or two when I opened my eyes around 2am to register that the fluffy blob 6 inches in front of my face was a very large porcupine gnawing on a trekking pole handle. I screeched and woke everyone up, but also succeeded in scaring the porcupine away…directly to Rockin, who also yelled at it until it finally left.

We left a little early today, with a lot of miles between us and town. We chose to take a side trail out to Pinedale to avoid having to carry ~8 days of food. Going out the side trail adds an extra 20 miles onto our hike, but I think it’s worth it, and it was good scenery the whole way anyway.

There were tons of wildflowers in bloom and we saw a moose. We also had fun laughing at all the boy scouts we saw as we approached the trailhead, looking miserable with their huge packs, complete with cans of bear spray swinging from the very back of the packs (where they are completely inaccessible and therefore useless).

There were tons of cars at the trailhead, but no one around to hitch a ride from. So Rockin worked her magic and found a woman in the nearby campground to drive us into Pinedale. Yay! I got to the gear store to replace some broken things and more importantly, to the brewery to sample the local beer. We once again found it cheaper to stuff 7 people in a motel room than stay at a campground. We will resupply tomorrow morning and get back on the trail.