Day 44 (ODT 12)

Day 44 (ODT 12): 36 miles

It was a chilly night camping down by the creek and I woke up with frost on my tent. Of which, I did not dry out during the day so my tent was soaked when I pulled it out at the end of the day. Both zippers on the door are now broken too. They both fail to do the thing zippers are supposed to do-close the links behind them. Idk what I can do to fix this but if I have to sleep somewhere with mosquitoes it’s gonna be a miserable night being unable to close my door. When I get some reception, I’ll see if mr. Google says I can fix it, but I doubt it.

I spent most of the day hiking with another thru hiker (One Gallon), which was a nice change of pace. We talked the whole time, and it also helped the pace. We were covering ground faster than usual. But we would also sometimes get too deep in our bullshitting and get far off track on a cross country section. But it was good to have company.

I got water this morning at Hart Mountain Headquarters, but after that it was 40 miles to the next water source. I think this is my longest water carry ever. I’ve had a good number of mid-high 30’s but finally breaking the 4-0. I’ve only got 9 miles left and about 2 liters of water so I’m doing pretty good. After chugging a lot at the HQ, I carried 5.5 liters.

It was a warm and exposed day. It’s not fully HOT yet, but it is warming up which I’m not a fan of. After passing some in the morning, I once again entered a sea of sagebrush void of trees. If I took a break, I’d just lay down and put my umbrella over my face, but I didn’t take too many cause there wasn’t much point. There wasn’t really any reprieve from the sun.

It was a pretty boring day of scenery. It was just flat land covered in sagebrush inching closer to Steens Mountain off in the distance. It’s a 9,500 foot mountain that I’ll be traversing in a few days. It’s still covered in snow, so it’ll be fun

One Gallon and I saw 4-5 people in the middle of nowhere. We assumed they were doing a study for college. But we were wondering what the hell they’re doing out there, and probably them the same. This is no man’s land