Meetup: Day 8 – Monday 7/20/2020 – 1381.5 – clear, sunny, hot, dry. I woke after a fitful sleep with gusting winds at 4:40 am, packed up and was on trail at 5:20 am. It was an easy 7 miles to Justin. I arrived at 8:10 am. I drank a Coke. We chatted and decided after a few minutes that I would slack-pack through Rawlins WY and get more miles in. I left at 9:45 am. I took Justin’s daypack, 2L of water, some snacks, and my InReach. This was my first slack-packing ever. I never did any on the AT although many other hikers did. I zoomed along and did 7 more miles until SOBO mile 1381.5 at 12 noon where I again met up with Justin. We had hot sausage wraps for lunch and pizza for dinner. Yum! I did my standard resupply stuff out of the Jeep. In addition I also took a shower and washed my clothes. Tomorrow I will be attempting to do 22 miles. We shall see. It will be 14 miles to water, 4 more to meet Justin where I’ll again switch from my backpack to a slack-pack and then 4 more to our official meetup point. Overall it’s been a good day, but I’m tired because I didn’t sleep well with yesterday’s wind.
