Day 35 (ODT 3)

Day 35 (ODT 3): 27 miles

I overslept as usual. I think even though I told myself I would go at a more leisurely pace this summer, all that really means is that I’ll go just as hard while hiking, but just sleep 9-11 hours a night.

I filled up 4 liters of water at Pumice Spring in the morning. It was the only “decent” water for the next 35ish miles. Even though I just recently backflushed my water filter, it filtered pretty slow. I wasted a lot of time filtering water, and tiring myself from squeezing so hard while doing so. Later in the day I grabbed 3 liters from a cow tank full of brown water just to be on the safe side. After filtering, it didn’t taste bad.

My ass and nether regions are chafing horribly. I was hiking in long pants yesterday and this morning which I usually don’t do so idk if that started it or what but it’s not too enjoyable. The benefit of the ODT however is that there is nobody else out here, so I can just drop the drawers and air out at any time.

There was a swarm of some sort of flying beetle today for about a quarter mile. I had over 50 on me at any time. Other than one lodging itself in my eyeball, it wasn’t terrible.

In the afternoon, I was walking through a wasteland of sagebrush but came upon a shade tree that was calling my name. The shade was glorious with a soft pine needle floor and a rockface which provided a backrest. It was an amazing spot, and one of the highlights of the day, just resting in my personal paradise. Part of me wanted to just stop and cowboy camp there because it was so perfect but it was too early.

I ended up hiking a couple extra miles than I wanted to at the end because I couldn’t find a campsite in this barren land of flatness. Everything is covered by sagebrush, and the small flat areas that aren’t are littered with ant hills. My guess is that these are spots where cows chill and then ants follow suit to take in the nutrients from their crap. If anyone could confirm this that’d be cool

Song if the day: Lux auterna
Listening to this while hiking as the sun is setting is immaculate