3 mi S of Horseshoe Canyon Lean-To 4 Jul 05 Day 18 Monday

I am back on the trail today. I am really missing town life right now. I had a hard time walking the 9 mi to the first lean-to. Everyone decided to walk 3 more miles to an unmanned camp site so I pressed on. I am glad I did. Tomorrow there is a behemoth of a mountain to summit. It will only be a 10 mi day but the climb will be hard. 2 more nights of camping gets us to Caratunk. I am not sure I can keep up with this group yet, I don't want to fall behind. They are great people and fun to camp with.

I had 2 river to ford today. After moving my barefoot way slowly across the first ford, a really nice lady gave me her sandals. The second ford was much easier and it was nice to wear something other than boots around camp.

The days have been very warm and sometimes down right hot but the evenings have been clear and cool. In fact, it feels almost cold. But there has been good star gazing. Iam going ot sleep before dark so I only catch a few stars. I would like to get up at midnight and really go stargazing but it is cold out of the sleeping bag and I have trouble motivating myself.

The campsite we are staying at has a rock beach just a few yards away where we forded the river. We made a fire pit and had a great fire going. No marshmallows but one kid had bisquick so we made doughboys or bannock. They didn't always cook through all the way, or they threatened to fall off the stick but they were really good.

I was having a really hard day today as most things still hurt. I had hoped that a zero day for rest would help but I don't know if it did. My feet still get very sore, my knee was being a bother and my pack was causing breathing pain. I removed my gators at the lean-to then did 3 more miles relatively pain free. So I wonder if the gators are part of the problem. I will try a gator free day tomorrow to find out.