23.5 miles
Camped at 1005.9, 9069 feet
Long day. Started out rough with a big climb and hordes of mosquitoes even at 5:45 PM. The trend has been mosquitoes from dawn until 11, horseflies all afternoon, mosquitoes again from 3 to past hiker midnight, probably all night, they are always waiting when I get up to pee in the night. I'm starting to really appreciate the early morning elevation gains because my feet don't realize what I'm doing to them and it's much cooler in the early morning. The afternoons are getting too hot for much uphill and are a much more suitable temperature for lake swimming.
The trail eventually leveled out and was very mosquito pace friendly and we did 10 miles by 10 AM. Mostly because the mosquitoes were driving us pretty quickly. It was a nice, easy gradual grade up and down all day so we made a lot of miles without really trying too hard. We stopped at a lake for an hour to eat and dry out our feet.
Today I learned that it is scientifically proven that Kansas is flatter than a pancake, thanks for the new reading material mom, it's perfect!
We ran into Z again. Hit the 1000 mile mark! Very exciting! That means there is only 1680 left, which is a number I try not to think about, it's too big and scary, but the halfway mark is coming up here pretty soon and the trail is definitely mellowing out.
Tonight we are camped with a bunch of high milage hikers, the ones that do crazy 26-35 miles a day.
Camped at 1005.9, 9069 feet
The trail eventually leveled out and was very mosquito pace friendly and we did 10 miles by 10 AM. Mostly because the mosquitoes were driving us pretty quickly. It was a nice, easy gradual grade up and down all day so we made a lot of miles without really trying too hard. We stopped at a lake for an hour to eat and dry out our feet.
