Had a really rough night last night. Woke up at 1 am with my heart beating out of my chest and feeling feverish. Finally got back to sleep around 3 am. When I woke up at 7 I still felt like crap. I had clearly overdone it with the elevation the previous day. Now to decide what to do. No way was I staying at this campsite. There would be another site a mile further on. I’d reevaluate then. I forced down some cereal, fed Cassie the rest of yesterday’s supper, packed up and hit the trail. When I reached the next campsite I still felt horrible. Decisions. The next 7 miles had no water sources. So I was forced to either do a full 7 miles or stay here. I decided to continue…slowly. If it took me 8 hours, so be it. Finally made it to Kenosha Pass Campground at 1:30, after passing through a fresh burn area of several acres…so fresh I was expecting to see logs still smoldering. But apparently the fire took place about a month ago and was caused by lightning.

Set the tent up to dry out, took a sponge bath in the outhouse building, then washed my clothes. All the while my mind was on a BBQ sandwich from a burger place 15 minutes down the road. Although I didn’t really feel like eating it, I was darned if I was going to pass up the opportunity for real food. Waited for my clothes to dry. Do you have any idea how long it takes to clothes to dry when you’re waiting for them? FOREVER!!! So I only waited until they were half dry to put them on and hike out of the campground out to the main road. Stuck out my thumb and waited. Ten minutes and a dozen cars later, a Freightliner tractor and trailer hauling 80,000 lbs of beer pulled off. I climbed in. The truck driver was an interesting guy with stories of shuttling backpackers around Mexico when he was laid off last year. Too bad the ride was only a short 4 miles to the BBQ place. I would have like to have learned more.

Met my second fellow thru-hiker at the BBQ place – Mike from Denver. We chatted then hitched back to the campground. He was beat too and didn’t want to hike the 3 miles to the next water source so we share my campsite*. I had planned to do chores and then turn in for the night but Mike and I ended up sitting and chatting for a while. Then it was off to bed after a long day that was supposed to have been short.

*Campsites in CO are much bigger than the typical dinky little campsite in the east. There was plenty of room to spread out and not intrude on each other’s space.