Day 83, July 9: Mile 1161 to 1187

• Start: Peter Grubb Hut - Mile 1160.8

• End: Mile 1187.0

• Miles: 26.2

• Ascent: 3719 | Descent: 5102

I woke up in the hut and packed up as quietly as I could as I was the first one up and out. A hiker who had presumably wandered in after we had gone to bed and slept on the first floor (while we slept on the second) informed me he heard mice running around and chewing on things all night long. I checked my pack to see if they had chewed through any of it, and thankfully no. I was happy to have slept in the loft away from the mice!

I wouldn’t call the hiking of the day particularly notable. I cruised through lots of mossy forests, up on some ridgelines overlooking the forests below, and through thick mosquito clouds that felt reminiscent of the horrible skitos after Sonora Pass. Mostly I just listened to my audiobook and tried not to think about my foot hurting a lot from breaking in my new shoes.

At one point, the guys and I stopped for a breakfast break near a spring. Six or so miles later, we stopped for a lunch break. The guys, who were ahead of me, stopped a little sooner than we had said and had marked where they were with their trekking poles. I blew past it, not realizing or not thinking of the significance of the poles. I stopped a half mile after and Cathole, then Gus and Sensei as well, came to join me.

We hiked on and kept leapfrogging a bit with Squirrel and Stem again. The four of us plus the two of them took one more quick break six miles out from camp and had fun chatting before continuing on. It was a bit of a race against the clock to make it camp by 7, and I made it around 7:15 or so. Just in time to set up my tent, eat dinner with the gang, and pass out by 9pm.