A funny thing — I finished writing the entry for Day 44 and then it started to rain.
On Day 45 everything was wet, so I decided to stay where I was. It was actually quite pleasant. I read, and thanks to the rain it was nicely cool. On Day 46 the book was good enough that I stayed another day. It was still raining lightly.
On Day 47 the slowly dwindling food finally pushed me to move on — water too. After the clean-up operation from the spilled pot, I’d used more than I’d budgeted, and the last four miles before the next spring I had to walk thirsty.
Once I reached that spring I drank properly and filled everything up. I still had some food, but less than I would have liked — the snacks were essentially gone. Along the trail, so much brush was growing into the path that it felt more like walking on top of the bushes than on a trail. The day itself was uneventful. Towards evening I came to a campsite with a few other hikers, where I could refill water again. For the last stretch — somewhere around 19 miles total for the day — it slowly got dark. Mostly downhill.
I arrived at a stream. In English, everything is a “stream” until it gets big enough to be called a “river”. A lot of what counts as a stream here I wouldn’t really call a Bach back home. But a stream it is.
A few other hikers were already at the spot. I tried hard not to wake them. How well I managed, I don’t know. The pasta with cheese I’d picked up somewhere turned out to be surprisingly good. The pasta itself wasn’t great, but the cheese sauce — from powdered cheese — actually tasted good this time. Blue Chip Group, I think they’re called (the brand is Augason Farms). As a Swiss person I have to say: they really don’t know what good cheese is over here. Everything is very bland. But this one was good, which was a real relief. Even Americans I’ve talked to admit they don’t really have great cheese. Maybe I’d just been unlucky so far, and was finally rewarded with a positive surprise.
Because the stream was right there, I went for the inner tent layer instead of cowboy camping — the one experience with humidity was more than enough. The night turned out to be entirely uneventful.
