Saturday October 8, 29.3km/18.2mi

Hugh Junction campsite (128.9/800m) to Standley Chasm campground (158.2/763m) (NT)

I packed up my tent by headlamp, and hiked out at 6am. It was an easy uphill walk, and felt good in the morning chill.

This was the first of three climbs today, and it was by far the easiest. It was only 6:30am, and the sun still hadn’t come up yet. And with all the wind, it was chilly at the saddle! After a quick descent down to a valley, I went right back uphill to another ridge.

This climb was quite a bit longer, I think 300m/1000ft up. And it was somehow even windier. But it was amazing to walk along a narrow ridge with steep drops on either side! At the highest point on the ridge was a sign, everything on this trail is so well signed!

The ridge-walking continued for another few km.

And then I saw something in the middle of the trail…a hat!

Some hiker ahead of me must’ve lost it yesterday (there was nobody hiking the opposite direction for days). I clipped it to my pack to bring to Standley Chasm campground, maybe someone will claim it. Eventually I descended off the ridge…

…and into Spencer Gorge!

It’s a 2km section that travels thru a rocky, talus-y, deep gorge with lots of greenery.

My ankles didn’t enjoy the rocky gorge, but I sure had fun with it, kinda feels like parkour! I had a nice break at Birthday Junction campsite, refilled my water, and even charged my phone a bit!

The next hour of hiking was amazing, traveling thru a wide sunny valley.

Eventually the valley ended, and I crossed a sandy wash to begin the next climb.

This climb was very long, I think it climbed 500m in 3km, and it became rather steep at the end. By 11:30am, I had reached the top! I was glad to finish my last big climb before the day became hot.

Many of the summits and ridges here have these funny signs.

I spent 45 minutes there, enjoying lunch, the views, and 4G reception, haha. The next hour was another epic ridgewalk, I was hoping it would never end.

Occasionally I would be distracted from all the views by a pretty alpine wildflower. These things are hardy little plants.

Eventually, the ridge-walking came to an end, and I had one last saddle to pass thru before my final descent to camp.

Once I had hiked over to the saddle, I saw they gave it a name, haha!

What does the saddle reveal? Maybe new parents have their gender reveal parties up here?!

And then the trail went down, down, down…

…all the way to the sealed (paved) road at Standley Chasm. Yes, even the remote Larapinta Trail has a short bit of road walking.

A few minutes later, I was at Standley Chasm.

It was only 3:15pm, but I was hungry so I walked straight to the cafe and ordered an early dinner.

While I was waiting for my food to cook, I enjoyed an appetizer.

I love milkshakes, but when I received this one, I realized it didn’t contain any ice cream. I asked the staff if this was an oversight or on purpose…. sadly, on purpose. So it’s just a glass of frothy milk with some flavour syrup …which of course is NOT a milkshake. (New Zealand did this too). When will people learn?! When the food arrived, it was excellent.

The potato wedges were seasoned with some addictive mixture of spices, and the red chile dipping sauce was heavenly. And I tried something new, a kangaroo burger! It was very lean and rich tasting, I rather enjoyed it.

I paid for my camping and entry fee ($18), as this is private land, not a public park. It’s run by the local indigenous tribe, and it was awesome to support their business. I walked over to the grassy area to setup my tent, and I met 4 other Larapinta walkers who are heading westbound (the opposite direction of me). They are all from Sydney and one is originally from Wellington. We spent much of the evening sitting around the picnic table discussing hiking stuff and various Australian attractions. I had a nice shower, and even did some laundry in the shower, and went to bed feeling all clean. It looks like my next shower will be in 3 more days, when I finish this trail…

Friday October 7, 32.7km/20.3mi

Ellery Creek Campground (96.2/668m) to Hugh Junction campsite (128.9/800m) (NT)

It was so hot last night that I didn’t put the rainfly on my tent, but at 4am it started to rain and I had to hurry and put it on. Ugh. I went back to sleep for 2 more hours and was up at 6am when the sky was bright. My first task for the day was to fix my right foot, which was starting to rub raw from the poorly designed shoe insole.

I taped up my foot with leukotape, and bent the insole into the correct shape. But it didn’t want to stay in that shape, so I heated it up with my stove and then it stayed. I put on my shoes and hiked out into the sunrise.

It was a wonderfully cloudy morning and I was enjoying the cooler temps. I climbed over a saddle, and saw the mountain range to the north that I was aiming for today.

Shortly after I came to the trail junction where the northern alternate rejoins the Larapinta.

By mid morning the clouds were starting to clear.

The trail was so much nicer today, and I was able to just walk and get lost in my thoughts without having to pay attention to much. Before I knew it, I was at the Rocky gully campsite, which was my first water source for the day.

I dropped my pack at the junction and jogged the 200 meters over to the water tank. Mission accomplished I continued onwards, under a completely blue sky.

At one of the viewpoints, I found something unusual… I think it’s a bra padding. Ha!

An hour later I stopped for lunch at Ghost gum flat.

It had a nice little table under a shady tree!

I arrived to the Hugh Gorge shelter pretty early, it was only 3pm. Just as I walked up a ranger was also driving up the maintenance 4wd track to check on the shelter. It was fun talking to him, he’s been to the US a few times and we discussed Colorado and Utah a bit. I saw dark clouds moving closer so I decided to stay put for awhile. Might as well charge my phone…

And fill my water bottles.

The storm moved through quickly and was intense for only 10 minutes.

I figured since it was so early, I would aim for the next camping spot, so I packed up and left the shelter at 4:30 and as soon as I did, I saw a rainbow!

The highlight of the day was the hike through Hugh gorge.

It was about 4 km of walking through a gorge, without a well-defined trail.

Sometimes it was walking in a dry wash, sometimes scrambling upon some rocks to get around a deep pool, and in one spot actually having to swim.

The particular spot proved to be quite a puzzle, as my trail notes say it should be easily waded waist-deep. However no such shallow crossing was to be found. Perhaps the winter rainstorms had re-shaped the gravel bars on the bottom? Eventually I decided to float my backpack across on my air mattress, and do the short 5 meter swim.

Overall it was a pretty fun section, and it reminded me of hiking/wading up Salmon Creek with my friends in high school. The views of the gorge walls were spectacularly red.

The trail leaves the gorge at Hugh Junction, and returns to dry land.

It was 6pm so I decided to camp just after this junction. I setup my tent on a gravel bar, and made my dinner, which was a Turkish lamb stew (I had grabbed it from the hostel’s hikerbox).

My goal tomorrow is to make it 29km to Standley Chasm, which is a tourist attraction with a campground, a restaurant, and showers. The restaurant closes at 4:30pm so I’m motivated to wake up early. And I’m glad I hiked the extra 4km today from the Hugh Gorge shelter! Tomorrow’s elevation profile looks… intimidating.

Thursday October 6, 37.3km/23.2mi

Unnamed valley campsite (63.1/835m) to Ellery Creek Campground (96.2/668m) (NT) +0.4 Serpentine Dam + 1.6 Counts Point + 2.2 Serpentine Gorge & Lookout

I knew it was going to be hot today (34C) so I got a very early start at 6am.

I cruised on easy trail for 5km, and then I got to the much hyped Inarlanga Pass.

The steep rock walls provide shade most of the time, and there is a different climate in the pass. Things are greener and wetter.

After a couple more km, I got to the Serpentine Chalet Dam campsite. It had been 29km since the last water source, so I was definitely looking forward to refilling my bottles and drinking a liter on the spot. I dropped my pack and ran up the short side trail to see the dam.

There was a big climb coming up, and I wanted to get it done before the day got hot…so I didn’t linger at the shelter. The shelter also marks the boundary between trail sections (there are 13 sections).

After an hour of flat walking, I spent another hour climbing up to the ridge.

It was starting to get warm but there was a very strong wind which kept the temperature manageable.

When I got to the top of the ridge there was a junction point, and I decided to take the side trail to see Coutts Point. But first I took a break under that shady tree….and had a snack and updated this journal.

I dropped my pack under the tree, and jogged over to Counts point, and on the way I almost stepped on a lizard!

The view from Counts point was looking back on what I had just hiked. There was even a bench!

I jogged back to my pack and then hiked the rest of the ridge walk for an hour.

I made it down to the next shelter at 12:30pm and tried to have lunch, but it was so hot that I had no appetite.

Each shelter has a cabinet where people can store their food to keep it safe from critters, and the doors are always covered in different native artwork. Cool.

I needed to cool down, so I dropped my pack in the shelter, and made the 500m stroll over to Serpentine gorge.

You’re not allowed to swim in the gorge because it’s a sacred site, but the other people there said it’s fine to dip your feet! After cooling off in the shade of the gorge, I decided to walk up to the lookout point, another short side trail.

I strolled back to the shelter and ate a little bit of food while staying cool in the shade. I waited until 3pm to get moving again, since there’s usually more shade after that time. The first hour of hiking went smoothly on a nice trail… and then the trail went to shit. The bad section started off being very rocky…

And then, inexplicably, the trail decided it needed to go over every single bump and hill along the way. The first bump was called “Trig point”, which is a weird name for a hill.

The trail went directly over another 7 or 8 PUDS (Pointless Ups & Downs), all of which were composed of some very sharp dolomite rock. Both the ascents and descents were steep and slow going.

That 5km took me an hour and a half…eesh. I was so happy to be done with that crappy section of trail. I got to the Ellery Creek Campground just after 6pm and went straight to the swimming area for a refreshing dip as the sun was setting.

I dried so quickly in this desert climate, and by the time I had finished setting up my tent and making dinner I was completely dry. (But not bone dry…bones are wet!). Even after the sun went down it was still very warm, like 27C. To illustrate, there are two other families at the campground, and all of them are walking around in their underwear. (Or maybe that’s just an Australian thing?)
With all the side trips today, it was my longest day so far, so I’m giving my sore feet some ibuprofen tonight!

Wednesday October 5, 29.6km/18.4mi

Ormiston Lookout (36.0/716m) to Unnamed valley campsite (63.1/835m) (NT) +2.5 Ghost Gum loop (NT)

I was awake and sunrise and was looking forward to some early morning hiking in the cooler temps.

The first 5km with by quickly, with some gently rolling terrain and nice views.

I stopped at the Ellery campsite and refilled my water bottles. All these campsites are so built up and look pretty new.

I saw the first Larapinta trail marker (all the markers so far have been generic).

The Ellery Gorge is a big tourist attraction, with car campsites, showers, a cafe, and a swimming area. There are a few loop hikes you can do, I chose to do a shorter 2.5km hike called the Ghost Gum walk. Based on the sign, I knew I was going to love it. “Swimming through cold water required”.

The hike started off with a few hundred stairs up to a viewpoint.

You could also see down into the gorge.

This hike is named for the ghost gum tree, which is a white tree that I think is related to eucalyptus.

I continued around the loop, which descended into the gorge.

As promised, there was some swimming required, but I found a crossing spot where it never got more than chest deep. The rest of the water is 10-15m deep.

I made it back to the campground area at 9:45 and had a quick shower. By the time I was done the cafe had just opened at 10am, and I ordered a fruit smoothie, a meat pie, and soda pop.

I thought this sign on the cafe was funny. Dingos!

I hiked out just before 11am, and it felt very hot. The next couple of hours went through some monotonous terrain that was in full hot sun. I think the temperature today was 32C.

After a steep climb, I was on top of a ridge for the next hour. It was a slow section of trail due to all the rocks.

It also had excellent views of Mount Giles, which I think is like the 4th highest peak in the NT.

And the views in the other directions:

I loved seeing this sign on the highpoint of the ridge…3G cell signal! (Which I’m told is outdated, since they have retired the 3G signal spectrum). I have Telstra service here, which had a nice 4G signal!

Far to the south, I could see someone doing a controlled burn.

Just as I was about to leave the ridge, 2 hikers came up, Emily and Stefan. We swapped trail beta for a while, poked fun at some of the silly things Americans do, and took summit photos of each other. I said goodbye, and descended 200m down, off the ridge and into the valley. I passed by a spot called Waterfall Gorge, which is confusing since it is almost always dry.

I’ve been seeing these tall dirt towers for a few days now, and I finally found out what they were. They are built by termites, who eat the tall spinifex grasses. Neat!

The last 6km of the day was uneventful, and was fairly nice hiking after the sun went behind the hillside.

After 5:30pm the temperatures are perfect for hiking, and I cruised along until I got to a campsite on the side of the trail at 7pm. I’m a little low on water, but it’s only 7km to the next water. I plan on starting at 6am tomorrow when it’s still nice & cool, so I can conserve water.

Tuesday October 4, 28.9km/18.0mi

Redbank Campsite (7.1/688m) to Ormiston Lookout (36.0/716m) (NT)

I woke up later than usual, I think I’m still catching up on sleep from all the travel. As I sat there and ate breakfast, I realized how incredibly loud all the birds are here. I packed up and was on the trail at 7:45am, and within a few minutes I had come to a sign for another campsite. The infrastructure for this trail is really well built!

There are also markers every kilometer that countdown the distance for each section. It’s kind of cool seeing how far you have to go, without needing any fancy apps or taking out your map.

The trail was pretty flat and easy the whole morning, with views mostly like these:

There seems to be tons of wildflowers here, of which I know none of the names yet.

I arrived to the Rocky bar campsite a little after 10am, refilled my water, and had a nice snack.

Surprisingly, there were bees living inside the water tap, so that was a shocking moment. Each of these campsites seems to have a toilet, a water tank, and some picnic tables… Its pretty nice! Shortly after leaving the campsite, I walked up a cool sandy wash.

Walking in deep sand is always a little slow going but it was nice to be in the shade of the trees. Just after leaving the wash I found another surprise… Some animal had forgotten their leg!

I have no idea what animal it used to belong to, and the only prey mammals I’m aware of out here are kangaroos. After this the trail started to climb, and thankfully the clouds moved into provide some shade. Halfway up the climb I looked at the view behind me and saw Mt. Sonder.

Once I was on top of the ridge the sun came back out and it got really hot, thank goodness for my chrome umbrella. I had a nice lunch on the top of the ridge and did some tasks on my phone, like uploading yesterday’s journal and booking my next plane ticket. The views coming down the ridge definitely got my attention… I have so far down to go!

At times, the trail was cut into the hillside, and there was a steep drop off on one side.

Once I was back down on the valley floor, the trail was smooth and easy, and I cruised through the nice grassland.

The day was really hot now, and even under my shady umbrella, I was looking forward to cooling off in the Finke River. When I got there, however, it was drying up.

It looked gross for swimming, and I certainly didn’t want to drink it either. In another 500 meters there was the nice Finke River campsite.

This campsite seemed especially modern and new. It had a huge covered area, picnic tables, sleeping platforms, and even USB chargers!

It was 5pm, so I figured I should make dinner here before hiking a few more miles to nice campsite on top of a ridge. While I was making my dinner a group of 4 walked in, they were the first people I had seen all day. They were all locals to Alice Springs, and they were walking a section of this trail westbound (the opposite direction of me). We swapped pieces of advice on the upcoming trail, and I even asked them where to buy packets of tuna. They are one of the foods I usually bring on hikes but they seem impossible to find in this country. I left the campsite at 6pm, knowing I had about 4km to cover and sunset was at 7 pm. I was walking faster, but a strange noise stopped me in my tracks. It was this bird, which I think is called a spinifex pigeon.

Spinifex is the sharp grass that grows everywhere around here, especially along the sides of the trail. It’s not as sharp as most desert plants, but you certainly wouldn’t want to bushwhack through it. I arrived at my intended campsite just after 7pm and quickly threw up my tent in the dwindling sunlight.

I’m seeing lightning very far to the north, I hope those storms don’t move down here, otherwise I will be moving my tent in the middle of the night…

Monday October 3, 14.7km/9.1mi

Mt Sonder (0.0/1327m) to Redbank Campsite (7.1/688m) (NT) x2, + 500m Carpark connector trail

I was up early, since the other people in my bunkroom were awake and gone by 5:45am. I lay in bed for a few minutes reading my book, listening to the loudest birds outside the window. I had a shower and packed up, and inventoried my food for anything missing.

I took a walk around town doing some final shopping for the hike, I picked up sunglasses, electrolyte tablets, and some more food. The local camping store had the best name… Lone Dingo!

When I returned, I even scored a free fuel canister from the hikerbox at the hostel!
The hostel owner had agreed to give me a ride to the starting trailhead, so I made sure I was ready to go at 11am. I love the license plates here – “NT Outback Australia”.

He ended up having someone else drive me, Zac and Zoe. They were very entertaining to talk with, and made the 2 hour drive go by quickly. The three of us made the short 1km hike into Redbank Gorge, and took a swim in the refreshing water.

We hiked back out to the carpark and said goodbye, I hope I convinced at least one of them to do a long distance hike!
(Group pic)

I started down the connector trail at 3:30pm, and with sunset before 7pm, I kept moving.This trail has lots of infrastructure, there was even a campsite and water tank right near the start.

I setup my tent at this spot, since I will be hiking back thru here in a few hours, and I’d rather not carry all my heavy food if I don’t have to. The trail climbed up to a ridge, and all the terrain around here seems like a desert.

Up on the ridge, there were views in every direction.

I arrived to Mt. Sonder just over 2 hours later, and found a nice monument at the top. It is the 4th highest mountain in the Northern Territory.

I signed the visitors book inside the monument.

The view to the north of this spot is the actual summit of Mt Sonder, but the hiking trail ends here, as the terrain gets more technical.

The views to the south were spectacular.

I turned around and hiked back the same way I came, so I’m basically covering this 7km section twice. The beginning of the trail is Mt Sonder, but the only way to that peak is to hike the trail from the nearest access point, hence hiking it both directions. The views on the return trip were into the setting sun.

I returned to my campsite at 7:30pm, quickly made my dinner, and jumped into the tent. As I lay here writing this, it has started to lightly sprinkle rain, and there are some weird animal sounds outside. My first night camping in Australia!

Saturday October 1 – Sunday October 2

The flight from LA to Brisbane was uneventful, but a long 14 hours. I watched a bunch of new movies, including the new Top Gun, which was pretty good. We landed 20 minutes later than expected, which caused me to miss my flight to Alice Springs. I actually got through customs/immigration and biosecurity pretty quickly, but still missed it by 20 minutes. D’oh. Qantas was very helpful about it and booked me on another flight that arrived later in the afternoon, no it was no longer direct and I had to connect through Darwin NT. I think I’m going to see almost every airport in Australia, ha! Seeing the kangaroo painted on the plane put me in a better mood.

At 5pm, I finally arrived in Alice Springs. The airport was really small.

Seeing cows had become a running joke on my hike in New Zealand, and I’ve already seen my first cow here in Australia…in the baggage claim area.

I called for a taxi and it arrived 15 minutes later. Like 20 other people were waiting around for a taxi too, and 7 of them jumped in the van with me and we split the costs. I’m not sure what their plan was if I hadn’t called for a taxi….

I checked into the hostel at 6:30 and settled into my room, and then went right back out to the Woolworths (grocery store here). I always buy Nutella for my hikes, and of course I had to buy the Australian-themed one.

I also bought some snacks for the hostel, and despite them sounding like terrible flavors, I just had to buy them to find out what they tasted like.

The hostel had a nice pool, but I wasn’t able to go in it since it had just closed at 8pm.

I spoke with one of the ladies running the hostel, and she said that I might be able to get a ride to the trailhead tomorrow with the hostel owner. That would make the trip so much easier, since I was planning on hitchhiking the 2-hour drive to the start. Hopefully that works out!

After being on planes for 35 hours, my shower that night felt really good. I did a little more packing, and was in bed by 9pm. I would say it felt like a long day… but I think it was really 2 days, crossing the international date line is confusing!

Friday September 30

I was busy on Thursday, wrapping up my final tasks at work, and doing laundry & packing my clothes and gear. My parents took me all the way up to Syracuse airport Thursday night, and it was nice to see the sun after a week of rain.

It was an uneventful flight to Los Angeles (via Atlanta), and I even got a free beverage on the plane from a mystery stranger who “liked my backpack”. I grabbed a cheap room at a hotel nearby LAX, which was an *interesting* walk at 12:30 in the morning. The hotel was nice enough, and even had clocks for all the major cities, which I thought was fitting! I found the Sydney clock, they didn’t have any other Australian cities.

I slept in late the next morning, and had a leisurely stroll to the nearest Starbucks, where I spent the afternoon working. I finished up around 4pm, and Fedex’d my laptop back to the office. A nice sushi dinner rounded out my day in LA, and I went back to the airport for my 9pm flight.

I think it’s like a 15 hour flight to Brisbane, and another 3 hours’ flight to Alice Springs. Ouch. The weirdest part of the flight is that I takeoff Friday night, and land Sunday morning…. Saturday never happens! Off to Oz, wheeeee!

Wednesday July 14, 13.5mi/21.7km

Ridge above Junction Creek (472.9/9045ft) to Junction Creek Trailhead (486.4/6995ft) (CO)

We got moving early, excited for a town day in Durango and the FINISH! Our water source was a quarter-mile down the trail, and it was a little hard to get to.

It had started raining in the first few minutes of hiking, and everything was wet. The trail was pretty well maintained, so it was only a slight “carwash” of wet plants.

The views into the valley were both a little smoky and rainy.

We caught up to Chris and Greg, CT hikers from Arizona. We hiked with them for the rest of the morning. It was great to get to know new people, right up until the end of the hike!

We came to a trail junction where the directions said “bear left”. It was a little disappointing since I saw no ursine creatures, to the left or anywhere.

In the final couple miles of Trail, we passed by Gudy’s rest. She was the “mother of the Colorado Trail”, and someone had installed a nice bench in her honor.

We made our way down some wet switchbacks….

… and arrived to our final crossing of Junction Creek. There was a group of ladies there who were very excited for our imminent finish, and they were also probably highly caffeinated.

Someone had scratched a note into the dirt. That’s today!

We got to the finishing trailhead at 11: 30am, and took some quick photos at the sign.

Chris and Greg had a ride arranged to town, and Erica and I got a ride from a nice woman who had hiked the CT last year. She dropped us at Erica’s friend’s house, and then we walked into Durango to get lunch. The Himalayan Kitchen really hit the spot!

There is a pub in town that gives hikers a free beer, so we walked over to Carver’s. I’m not usually a fan of nut brown ales, but it was pretty tasty.

I also ordered a large warm chocolate chip cookie smothered in ice cream. Bonus calories!

I’ve been to Durango before, but I really got to appreciate it today while exploring it on foot.

The Silverton & Durango scenic railroad was painfully loud. https://youtu.be/VbvxMBe3gqU

We had dinner at Switchback Taco Bar. It wasn’t our plan A, but the first restaurant was very busy, and I wanted tacos way more than I realized. And they had fun t-shirts: “the tacos are calling and I must go” 😂

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We walked back to the house, it wasn’t late but it was well after “hiker midnight”. Getting up early for flights home tomorrow morning!

Tuesday July 13, 25.8mi/41.5km

Overlook near Corral Draw (447.1/10895ft) to Ridge above Junction Creek (472.9/9045ft) (CO)

I was awake at 6am, to get an early start and get over a couple summits before the forecasted afternoon thunderstorms. I caught the sunrise as I was finishing packing.

Morning miles are my favorite, cool temperatures and nice lighting on the hillsides.

The trail followed a ridge for most of the morning, and occasionally merging with a dirt road.

The view down into the valleys looked like the misty southern Appalachians, due to all the wildfire smoke around here.

This section of trail was quite dry, so the few water sources were well marked.

These ridgewalks were flat, easy, and just plain enjoyable.

And sometimes there are random bones by the trail…

The next water source was also marked, on a log!

I put a leaf in the little trickle of water to make a spout.

I took a quick detour down the overlook trail, it definitely lives up to its name.

The nice ridgewalk continued.

I was making good progress! Only 5 more miles to Kennebec Pass, which means only 3 more miles to get over the two high summits, before the thunderstorms started.

This little piece of graffiti was a nice bit of encouragement.

The ridgewalk continued, and climbed up to 12,000ft, above treeline.

Looking back at what I had just hiked up:

The peaks off to the right looked cool, I think they are the La Plata Mountains.

There was a tiny remaining snowfield on the top of the first summit.

Looking back again:

I left the first summit and continued into the second one, only a half-mile away.

From the top of the second summit, I could see down into Taylor Lake basin.

It was 12:30pm, and clouds were starting to gather, so I quickly descended from the summit, and into fields of wildflowers.

I caught up with Koko! Her name means “Keep On Keeping On”. We had a quick lunch near the lake, and we hiked together the rest of the afternoon.

The clouds were really getting busy now, and I was glad to be going downhill so quickly.

KOKO showed me how to identify wild strawberries! They were delicious.

And we went chasin’ waterfalls. This particular waterfall ended on a wet slab, way less fun than a deep splash pool.

The cliffs were full of weird angular rocks. It kinda reminded me of Devil’s Postpile Monument in California.

We finally got down to Junction Creek, and the skies started raining.

We hiked another mile to a campsite on a hillside, and setup our tents quickly in the light rain. It was only 4:30pm, but it was a good time to stop, and each of us had already hiked 20+ miles for the day. We hid in our tents while each successive wave of stormclouds passed by.

I ate dinner early, and then had a second dinner. I can eat all my extra food, because it’s only 13 miles to the finish and Durango tomorrow!