Day 102 (PNT 7)

Day 102 (PNT 7): 33 miles

I actually woke up early today but only because the birds around were so loud. I finished up the rail trail and then started a 13 miles road walk along Lake Koocanusa. It did not feel good. It was early in the morning but it was still damn hot. I finally made it to the Webb Mountain Trailhead and laid down for a break. I ended up falling asleep and wasting an hour, and when I woke up I was sweating in the sun.

The 3,500 foot climb up Webb was pretty brutal. It was kinda steep, but more so, it was hotttt. It was over 90 degrees and the sun seemed to pierce through the short weak tree branches. By the time I got to the top, I was a sweaty bucket of chum. And when I got to the lookout tower on the summit, I was a little disappointed to see there were other people that drove up there. There was a road! Damn I should’ve went the easy way

After that I thought the day would be easy but it never did, only buggier and constantly up and down. I ended up having to wear my bug net for most of the day.

I came across 2 other thru hikers that were heading east and doing a flip flop hike that have me some recon for the trail ahead. And later I met 2 more thru hikers, one of whom I woke up and probably ruined his night.

I pushed to the Mount Henry Lookout Tower for camp. I was hoping to get there for sunset but ended up not getting there until 10:45. When I rolled in, I woke up a hiker but he was really nice and understanding. It was excellent camping in the borded up tower except that I’m pretty sure something was trapped in between some of the boards cause I heard something gnawing on wood all night, and I’ve had so many bad expletives with mice and rats on trail it brought back a lot of paranoia and anxiety.

It just seemed like a really hard day. When I finally finished up, I looked at the elevation profile for the day and it was over 9,000 feet of climbing! Maybe that’s why it felt so hard

Webb Mt was sweet hit other than that, the day was a ton of work without really any reward. Mt Henry for sunrise tomorrow

Song of the day: Jukebox jams-asap rocky