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Up at 3:45 for and couldn’t get back to sleep. Finally just got out of bed at 5:30 and started writing. We can’t believe its still raining!
We stuck around the hotel for a bit reorganizing food and waiting out the rain.
It’s rained for almost 24 hours straight!
Hit the sonju trailhead at 10:45
-hiked in the rain off and on until lunch. I live in my rainsuit now and love it very much. Today I just skipped hiking pants and put on my rain pants since my zip offs wick up water and leave these hilarious looking patterns of mud on the insides of my knees.
-waterproof socks are great for trips like these. My feet were happy all day in wrightsocks and sealskins. Cleanest feet in camp! Walked right through miles of mud. They got a little warm the last mile into camp when the sun finally popped out.
-mostly gray and drizzly/rainy again today, but the leaves have exploded with color overnight!
The forest floor is covered in a carpet of red and orange, and more varieties of mushrooms abound!
-lilys island was a beautiful little side trip on another boardwalk, Andrea has been geocaching on the trek-we couldn’t find this one.
-singing! (Insert video here!)
-no moose (due to singing!)
-met Cass who started through hiking and is now section hiking with her parents support. So cool! Good luck!
-finally connected with the Thrive 5 around 3pm at Egge lake Yay!
-Hauled out a dog poop bag left at camp and ended up carrying that thing 20 more miles to the end. Gross!
-Ive fallen in love with this section of the trail. The teal maps feels like the hardest, but the work is worth every step into more beauty.
-shin deep mud at the bottom. Very funny youtube video on the way!
-met a full campsite of really nice people. I think there are 12 people here tonight and plenty of room if you dont mind sleeping on a hill. Ross hiked most of the JMT. Another gal is hiking with her son, the Thrive gals are a hoot and Im glad we’re all together now.
-Sara had the most awesome swedish stove!
-Gave Jill the fork I found at our first campsite-she was eating dinner with her brand new, never used deuce of spades trowel because her utensil went missing. Creative and so ultralight!!
-Dads Birthday today-had a toast at dinner.
-Rare early harvest moon under those clouds tonight, I only saw evidence of it in the middle of the night when I thought someone was shining a flashlight in my tarp.
-Angie and Andrea ran the go pro today after we all laughed at how all of my strap-cam videos look like they are powered by robot arms…you’ll see. Im giving them the camera for the rest of the trip. They crack me up! Subscribe to the Wandering Pine Youtube-it will eventually be on there!
Woosh! …wind coming in my tarp tonight because I pitched it high. Snuggled under my quilt with an umbrella for a door again.
Big climbs ahead. Can’t wait to see what the trail brings tomorrow!
*NOTE: Im posting trail notes when we find service. For more photos, stories about the first 250 miles, gear and other trail shenanigans, you can follow along here and click the Superior Hiking trail tab at the top of the page. Thanks for reading and Happy Trails!