Day 208 (HDT 24)

Day 208 (HDT 24): 27 miles

It was a cold night, but not my worst ever. I slept pretty well, and would only occasionally wake up feeling cold. It was strange however, even though I felt cold all night, my lower body was sweating. I did sleep with my mittens on 90% of the night. Although I felt cold, I never felt dangerously cold. Good job @katabaticgear in temps more than 10 degrees below the temperature rating.

After waiting for the sun to come out, we started hiking in a road before dropping into Bullrush Gorge. We passed a cow tank on the way that had water in it. I was amazed to see that there was only a thin layer of ice on top, and that it wasn’t frozen solid. I guess it has only been cold for 2 days really.

The hiking in Bullrush Gorge wasn’t bad. I was scared there might be water flowing, and with how cold it was, I refused to get soaking wet feet today. Having wet feet from snow is one thing, but wading through water when it’s barely above freezing, or not even, is just asking for trouble. Thankfully there were only a few puddles in the gorge and they were easy to hop or climb around.

After being in the gorge for a while, we entered Parker Wash which was bigger and more muddy. Around this time, I was listening to Backpacker Radio walking at a normal pace. Then they started talking about pump up songs while at the gym or hiking. Then I started thinking about Wait and Bleed. Then I really wanted to listen to Wait and Bleed. Then I played Wait and Bleed and started running a little bit. Then I wanted to hear some more “get jacked” songs. Then I queued up a lot of bangers. You know, Wait and Bleed, Kickstart my Heart, Knock Knock, Click Click Boom, (sic), Sorry 4 the Wait, Bulls on Parade. All the hits all the classics. And I started flying. I breezed by Fancy Feast who was ahead of me after a snack break and I basically ran for the next hour, feeling high off the tunes.

After running for an hour, I thought I might calm down a little bit.
But then I went back to the podcast and the guest was talking about working at a gym and working out and I just got more pumped because it reminded me how excited I am to get back in the gym this winter. I love thru hiking, but I hate having SpongeBob arms. I can’t wait to get meaty again.

Eventually I did stop from running and took a break. I worked on our upcoming plans for the Grand Canyon and watched 2 episodes of Bojack Horseman. It was probably about 90 minutes before Fancy Feast Caught up cause I was running for so long.

Parker Wash was a little slower going cause it was full of thick mud which was slippery, but it was far from the worst we’ve dealt with. What was really nice about the day though was that we dropped in elevation to around 5,000 feet and it was considerably warmer. I got back down to my shorts and shirt today. Felt good to air out.

We spent the rest of the day road walking to the highway into Kanab. Shortly before the day ended, a group of hunters invited us to join them at their camp. We had about a mile before we’d get there. They said it was in a gravel turnoff right before the road, and gave us a roast beef and cheese sub.

I liked this. If I know one thing about hunters, it’s that they set up good camps. They don’t mess around with ultralight gear. They don’t just eat bad hiking food. They don’t ever not have beer. I knew this was going to be a good setup. We passed a really good sheltered camping area that was a gravel turnoff about a half mile before the road. We were surprised to see that they weren’t there.

We kept walking towards the road hoping we’d see their camp soon. It eventually got to the point where we were about 100 yards from the road and didn’t see any sign of a camp. I thought we got punk’d. But luckily, 10 feet before the highway, we saw the turnoff they were talking about and saw their camp. Most of the guys turned in for the night, except for a super nice guy named Gary that took care of us. He gave us hot dogs, which we roasted over the fire, and plenty of beer. And I was happy to finally be back around my people. They weren’t drinking any Devil’s Asshole IPA’s. They were drinking good ole Busch Light. It felt like I was back home.

Aside from Gary, we also met some entertaining kids. I taught 2 of the cutest little girls in the world, Kaya and Kiera how to set up my tent. And they were happy to help. But they both didn’t like it and thought it was too small, which I thought was funny considering they were 9 and 6 years old and about 1/4 the size of me. They were amazing bundles of energy and reminded me a lot of 2 of my cousins, and provided great entertainment for the night around the campfire. I kept getting fed busch lights, enjoyed the warmth of a campfire, learned about the world of high-end RC cars, and had a great time.

Song of the day: wait and bleed-slipknot