Slept great. On trail by 0540. Most pains were gone.

That dark clump in the center is where I slept last night

Almost got ten by ten (0.3 short). I felt great until I got lost on the way to Yellow Jacket Spring. I swear there was a sign pointing down a road, but when I got down it a ways I noticed the lack of trekking pole marks. I checked my map and it looked like I could bushwhack up this valley, which I did and it wasn’t terrible. I found the spring and bushwhacked back up to the PCT which was pretty hard (steep and brushy and hot). I never did see the trail that supposedly goes from the PCT to the spring. I got back up to the trail with 5.5 liters of water by 1400. But I was tired and slow again.

A few minutes later I passed Goulet, taking a break. He was feeling slow too. But not long after, he passed me again. I never did catch up to Space Kitty.

Found an awesome campsite with good rocks for leaning on and a view but I decided it was too windy, although it wasn’t much windier than the spot I settled for 45 minutes later at 1800 with no leaning rocks, but by then I was too tired to care.

I called this post hump day because it was the middle day of my “week”, I went up and over a big mountain, and in many ways my spirits and attitude toward the trail are much improved. Let’s hope they stay that way!