Day 78,    22.5 miles

I was relaxing and having my morning coffee.  What a beautiful spot, I had to myself, by the small lake.  It was 7 am and I realized Sweet had probably been on the trail for an hour and a half already.  I got a bit teary when I thought I won’t catch up to her this time and I may never see her again.  We have hiked, for the most part, 525 miles together.  She has to hike more miles now to finish by August 21st so she can get back to school.  Some days I pushed her and some days she pushed me.  She believes in me and what I am capable of more than I do.  There were evenings when we would be hiking way past dinner time.  We would be on some terrible snowy traverse, or route finding through trees and snow with no footprints to follow.  I would start to grumble or make a face. Sweet would say,  “Now is the time for our best attitudes.” or   “You’ve got this Moonshadow.”   After a 30 or so mile day she would say,  “We are such bad a…s” then she would give me a hug.  Every night when we were setting up our tents she would always let me pick the flattest spot first.  So Sweet.

I started to pack up and get dressed for the day.  I’d left my clothes outside my tent last night, to air.  I laughed out loud to find my t-shirt shredded with holes.  An alpine critter had feasted on it in the night.  I’m just happy it didn’t want to snack on my pack, my tent, or my shoes.  Then I’d have a real problem.

I’ve taken the weather for granted.  It’s been sunny blue skies every day.   Today I could see dark ominous clouds in the sky to the south.  I was getting closer and closer as the day’s hike went on.  We’ll see about that!

Camped in a meadow beside a winding, slow moving brook.  Lots of mosquitoes and flies.