Miles: 24.4 

Total Trail Miles: 436.1 

Ascent/Descent: 3261/5771 ft 

Start Time: 07:07 

End Time: 17:05 

Temperature: 16°C (61°F)

Last night was pretty windy so none of us slept all that well with the noise of the wind waking us up regularly, I was warm though which was nice. The bad also ment we didn't get moving very quickly and it was gone 7 by the time I left. It was nice out not being as cold in the mornings again. We had a big day today but more downhill than uphill so that was good. About 7 miles in we found trail magic, a cooler of ice cold fizzy drinks by a picnic bench, we took a breather there with some other hikers and enjoyed a drink. I realised my audio book Where The Crawdads Sing was going to expire at the end of the day so i spent my first 3.5 hours of hiking listening to the rest of it. We stopped for lunch down my a river with gravedigger and a couple of others. I was actually the quickest today with Beer Slide suffering from a bad foot, Shortcut still having her foot pains and Yeehaw suffering from some new bad blisters. We had a climb after lunch and my audio book finished as We were nearing the top in a pine forest, the smell was divine and as i took my headphones out the bird song was beautiful, I enjoyed just listening to the birds and nature for the rest of the day, feeling very grateful to be here and once again in awe of the beauty of the mountains surrounding us, the view changed from being able to see vast red desert mountains on the right to green mountains on the left. My back was aching a little, still from Baden Powell and my toes a little sore but I felt good other than that and didn't mind the longer miles. I rocked up to camp, a ranger station at 5, other hikers we hadn't met before were there and told us the ranger was giving out trail magic, he gave me 2 beers and a packet of oreos! I pitched my tent and then quickly got onto dinner. Beer Slide and Yeehaw has arrived shortly after me and we sat with 2 hikers Badass and Doe for dinner. Gravedigger rocked up half hour later and then Shortcut around 6. E enjoyed our food and beers before heading to bed.