So, now that I have my tent, I slept in it last night. Seems like everyone sleeps in a tent every night regardless of conditions, so I thought I would try it too. Well, I woke up and everything was wet! My bag, tent, rainfly, even my pad. It was around freezing and my breath was condensing on the inside, dripping down to this seam where it dripped down onto me and everything else. This was absolutely the wettest I have been at night, and it wasn’t even raining! And it was stuffy and humid and damp. Honestly, I don’t see the attraction.

My campsite on a ridge got sun right at sunrise so I decided to dry everything out before packing up. It took until after 8, by which time I was very anxious to get moving. I won’t do that again.

I admit this gave me time to take a closer look at the trail ahead and my itinerary. Wait, what? Day six (the day I theoretically run out of food) has me hiking ten miles to the top of Forester Pass, then another ten to the Kearsarge Pass trail, then 7.5 miles over Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley, then “hitch into Bishop”. Who comes up with this shit? For one, that’s almost 30 miles over rough terrain. For two, I should really be up and over Forester by noon in case there’s weather. And three, I’d get to the road at nightfall, which is not a good time to hitch at all.

Anyway, it was a nice day and the trail was pretty cruiser.

I definitely felt the elevation, but my feet and legs felt good. I did 17 miles and might have done more but the map showed the trail going way up a mountain for the next five miles so I was glad to stop at 1730 at a nice spot on a ridge.