Day 19 mile 122ish to 135.5

We weren’t the last ones to roll out of camp but the sun was already getting warm as we climbed up out of camp along the ridge. All day we were following Mission Creek so we had very short water carries which was a nice change.

It was planned to be a fairly short day so we were feeling good about taking a few longer breaks. Little did we know we would be losing the trail all day long. The rocky sand we were walking through would look like the trail and then quickly we were definitely not on the trail anymore. This continued until after lunch when we started climbing again up to our campsite. It’s incredibly frustrating to have to check the map every .1 miles to make sure you’re still headed in the right direction. Lunch was nice under some big trees by the water but we lost our shade fairly quickly.

At our last water stop before camp I was feeling good and we were talking about maybe going a few extra miles to make the next two days a little easier. A couple miles later the sun started to really get to me. My heat rash was still mildly bothering me and the heat was draining all of my energy.

When we got to the campsite we found it quite different from the picture on Guthook. A huge tree had fallen across the site cutting down the amount of space there was to camp. We had enough room for our tent and maybe one more small tent but not much more. Luckily we were the first to decide to camp here and got a good spot. There was also a nice little stream flowing below us which was unexpected but welcome. I went down to the stream to get water to rinse out my clothes. Sweating day after day in the same clothes is just unpleasant.

After I got back from clothes rinsing I hung my clothes all over the downed tree and I told Jake it looked like we were shipwrecked. It was quite the sight. I walked over to another nearby tree to pee and quickly found out that I was standing on an anthill of biting ants. Luckily one only nibbled at my finger and I was able to stomp the rest of them but ugh, ants!