Day 6 – Saturday 7/18/2020 – 1350.0 – clear, few clouds, sunny, hot, dry. I was up at 4:39 am and on trail at 5:16 am. Today was only 14.7 miles. Along the way I thought I saw a cell tower and indeed I got a signal and received text messages from the family. It’s nice to be connected being so far from civilization. I met Bard, a NOBO thru-hiker. A few minutes later around 10:00 am I heard a beep behind me and thinking it was someone’s truck I stepped off trail and turned around to wave. Surprise, surprise, it was Justin in the Jeep. While packing up our campsite he found a valve for my air mattress and was worried I’d have nothing to sleep on for the next two nights. So he drove the trail to find me. How nice! He too had met Bard, and he was also surprised how far I had gone. The air mattress was fine. It was a spare valve that had unfortunately fallen out of mattress storage sack. He left and I hiked on. Next I met two section hikers Eric and Balto. They had started in Steamboat Springs, CO about 10 days ago. We didn’t chat long and we went our ways. In a few minutes I was at the spring where I’ll stay overnight. I found a shady spot – yippee! I pooped – yippee! And although it’s early in the day I’m sitting in the shade with a nice breeze blowing. You’ve got to relax and enjoy the little things when they pop up. Soon I’ll eat lunch and get water at the spring. Then in late afternoon I’ll set up my tent in a sage bush grove which will hopefully reduce the buffeting by the gusty afternoon winds.
