Day 20 mile 135.5 to 253

I slept through a mouse attack last night! Some little monster was trying to gnaw at the tent, luckily Jake scared it off because I didn’t even know it had happened. I’ve been taking a benedryl before bed to help calm the heat rash so I’m sure that had something to do with my being out of it.

We were up around 5:45 and hiking in about an hour. It was nice and cool for a bit and we were headed for a reported good water source only 4.5 miles away. Once we were at the spring i started to try to get water from the million tiny drips that were coming from the spring through overhanging tree roots , it was taking forever. A large bucket was there so we could dip into that to make it a little faster to get water.

We headed towards the Coon Creek Cabin for lunch. The temperatures were cool and we were having fun chatting on the 6 mile hike. The cabin was a little creepy, with a lot of graffiti and some broken floor boards. Some hikers stay the night here and report having fun mice friends who chew through their things. No thanks to that. I found a nice shaded spot near a log to set up for lunch. While we were hanging some women showed up down the way with trail magic but didn’t stay very long and we missed out.

A few more miles to camp, past a creepy former private zoo and some water caches that we didn’t end up needing. Our site for the night was near a dirt road and after we had already settled in a guy showed up and yelled “Hey hiker trash! Anyone want a beer…or a soda?”. We didn’t respond but a couple of our neighbors took him up on his offer. Gotta love friendly locals!