This wasn't a good day. Ut started well by meeting Ling, a thruhiker who had been hiking with Dirtmonger. He walked up as I was packing up. I had camped directly on the trail because there was nowhere else. We talked for awhile and hiked about two miles together. When the uphill started in earnest I had to slow down. There was a lot of uphill today and that is the worst thing for my foot. In the morning I felt great, but by the afternoon the familiar pain returned and I stopped early when a campsite presented itself.

The worst part of the day was at Buckhorn Creek. I was counting on it for water and wasn't disappointed. To make a long story short, while burning some paper garbage, dead grass caught fire and melted holes in my food bag (no big deal) and two of my empty water bladders (big deal). I lost 4.5 liters if carrying capacity. Ouch. After filling everything else up, I repacked but it was awkward due to the ruined food bag. On top of it all was my last 1.5 liter collapsible water bottle. I cinched down the top pocket to keep it in place but when I started hiking it worked loose and fell out. Yep. Two holes. Down 6 liters of capacity. I can only carry a little over 3 liters now. That's a problem especially with my limping along doing single digit miles. The next town is far away.