Day 73 – 7/4/13 – 25.7 mi (1256.5)

When you’re on trail for as long as we’ve been, you find entertainment where you can. The 4th of July was a great excuse to celebrate, and we had all sorts of accessories to wear thanks to Twiggy and Spoc’s buried trail magic from a week ago. We proudly sported our made in China patriotic tinsel headgear all day.

At morning break, we took advantage of the sun to dry out all our gear, wet from overnight rains. We also took a lot of fun pictures with our celebratory accessories. This was a great way to kill a lot more than 5 minutes.

After a quick water stop, Rockin’ and I hiked on while others filtered. Around lunchtime I became suspicious of all the creek we were crossing and checked my GPS. We’d missed a turn and were about 2 miles down a valley on the wrong trail. Instead of backtracking, we decided to bushwhack straight up about 800′ in .75 miles, getting eaten alive by mosquitos the whole time. Rockin’s only water bottle fell out during the climb and torpedoed down the hill, never to be seen again. We would have to make do with the 2 liters I was carrying.

When we finally got back to dirt road on the ridge that we were supposed to be following, we were worried we were behind the group, so we only took a 15 minute lunch. I had spotty cell service and sent LoveNote a message explaining where we were. An hour later I recieved a response and we figured out they were behind us.

Rockin’ and I decided to keep moving to get to the next water, still 11 miles away. It was a dirt roadwalk the entire way, which is hard on the feet. When we finally reached the creek, we found it surrounded by a huge herd of cattle and stopped up with beaver dams. Road walking and gross water…where are we, back in New Mexico?

We stopped shortly after passing the cows and with no other choice, got water. The rest of the gang caught up and we discussed camping options. Sweetfish and Ninja decided to head for the highway, hoping to hitch into town and slackpack the rest of the miles tomorrow. The rest of us called it a day and set up camp not far down the road.

In camp, we played with glow sticks and bubbles. Trying to mix the two yielded little success, but it was nice to end the day on a light and silly note after all the crankiness we were feeling from the roadwalk.