34.5 miles today – biggest day yet by 8.4 miles. My feet held up really well (probably due to our superlight packs through the park) except for some heel calluses that have been irritating me. I finally realized that I need to trim down my Montrail insoles – problem solved.
After hiking for nearly 11 hours we were all in zombie mode, only progressing forward because that was where dinner would be. Knowing that food is readily and easily available in SNP, we opted to carry light packs and do big miles. Knowing the camp store at Loft Mtn Campground closed at 7:00pm, we made sure to arrive at least 30 minutes before that. Around 6:30pm the camp store was no where to be found. Caboose was in the zone, denying my almonds like they were the plague.
Once we did finally arrive at the campground we soon found out that the camp store closed at 6:00pm on Wednesday... shit. We were depending on that for dinner. We must have been due some karma at this point because the manager was still inside, saw me standing on a rock peering into the window and gladly re-opened the store.
Randall Fields was his name. While we were devouring our food, he informed us of his life, thru-hiked back in the day and also ran cross country. He has ran every marathon under the sun, including Boston and a personal record of 2:14 (puts my time to shame). He also ran a 4:06 mile in his prime and ran with some of the greats, such as Steve Prefontaine, Bill Rogers and others.
I wanna go camping! Thanks for sharing this snippet of your adventure.
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