Sunday, March 18th - Wednesday, March 21st (McKenna)

(It takes a long time to upload pictures right now, so to save battery life, I'll post them tomorrow at my resupply area when I'll have a charge and better service.)

Days 5 - 8: I'm just too exhausted to post each day separately. Sunday sucked because I lost my partner. It was suddenly a very quiet hike. Not that I've never done solo hikes, this just wasn't the plan.

Saw some wild horses.

Thought I'd camp at the trailhead that we'd planned on, but it came so fast and I still had a lot of energy, so I just went on. Lots of people talk to you when you're alone, like it's such a strange thing to see. I met a few other hikers and answered their questions.

I kept hiking until the sun started to go down. Then I set up camp, sent my GPS notification to family, and started to settle in.

Was about to strip down outside my tent because it's easier, but I did the habitual look around first. A cow was staring at me in anticipation. I waited to change.

That night was really cold. I woke a few times, and realized I was flat on the ground. Somehow I'd punctured my mattress. I blew it up twice more during the night to try and get some sleep.

Day 6, I hiked. A lot. Climbed and climbed. And descended.

Didn't see anyone all day, but I'd already adopted my solo hiking standard - a busy mind. Songs and funny moments, not-so-funny moments and goals ran through my mind at a comfortable pace. My self talk is a good friend to have when my mom isn't my hiking buddy at the moment. I hope she joins me soon.

I make camp at Kentucky Camp, a site we had planned on reaching the next day. It's an historic mining community with about 6 buildings remaining. The host, Steve, was very friendly and had me set up my tent on the porch of the main building because it was really windy and had dropped to the mid 30s the night before.

I did my previous posts and emailed Wild Man who is hiking the Grand Enchantment Trail. I had done almost 16 hard miles that day, so I was pooped. When I was coming back from the outhouse, my headlamp caught the reflection of two eyes under the porch. I thought, "That's either the biggest rat, or the smallest raccoon..." Then it turned around for a second, and I saw it's long ringed tail. It poked it's head back out and I saw clearly my first ringtailed lemur! He was the cutest stinkin' thing! I hoped he wouldn't be a nuisance, and he wasn't. I was coughing so hard that night, getting crap out of my lungs, I wondered about pneumonia for a bit. (Oh, and at a spring tank earlier in the day, I had blown up my mattress and dunked it to find the hole. Fixed it at camp.)

The next morning, Day 7, I woke at 2am, just freezing. I had two Hot Hands left, so I pulled them out and stuck them in my socks because my feet were so cold. At 5am, I woke again because my feet were so hot and my body was in a cold sweat. I was so miserable, I started packing up. By 7am, I was stripping out of layers because it was so hot. When talking with a hiker later that day, temperature control was the one thing I missed.

After 10 miles and it wasn't even noon yet, I ran into another solo female hiker, Cache. We hiked together for a while in a section that was super dry and hot. Thankfully I'd really loaded up my water supply at KY Camp before leaving. It was about 15 miles dry in all. But she and I just kept hiking and hiking, until suddenly, we ran into this!

And about two miles later, 22.5 miles for my day, we found our campsite just as the sun was going down.

My typical nightly set up. And yes, if it's cold, I'll cook right inside my tent.

Day 8. Been on the trail for a full week now, and I can't even wrap my head around it. I was just giving hugs to the girls this morning, it seems! I miss them. I miss my hiking partner who was carrying the other half of this two man tent. But! My cough is better, I have no blisters or tape on my toes, I've lost a little bit of weight, and except for seeing my loved ones, there's nothing I'd rather be doing than what I did that morning - filter water out of a cow tank that smelled of manure.

Put in only about 13 miles today because I was feeling it still from the day before. Hot. Dry. But I went through a tunnel under I-10!

Did some laundry and self cleaning, and now am ready to conk out.