I slept in a little this morning, but was on trail at 7:40. Gaucho left an hour ago.  I saw him say a little prayer and do the sign of the cross before he left.  All in silence.  I thought it was pretty cool.  He is a humble and thoughtful man who I admire a lot.

I took my time today. At first my ankle was giving me a lot of pain so I took 4 ibuprofens and did my stretches.  It finally started to loosen up and then it was my new blisters from yesterday that had my full attention.  That is until my left hip started hurting again.  I decided that I just needed to be patient and slow down – which I did. I also took a lot of breaks. This worked well for a while until it started to warm up and the biting flies made it miserable to stop.  So I kept going, grabbing a quick bite when I could and moving on.  

The trail dropped down off the ridge and entered a region of rolling foothills in a huge valley. I walked along a rocky dirt ranching road that winds through the hillocks, ponds, and creeks. This is a refreshing change from all the ridge walking.

Eventually I came to the valley containing Deadman Lake.  Like the previous two valleys the trail contoured a couple miles up the valley before crossing the stream and returning on the other side where it would ascend the ridge and descend to the next valley. I was looking at this repeating pattern when a ranger drove right below me on a very steep road I hadn’t seen.  I bushwhacked down to the road and followed it down the steep slope to Deadman Lake.  I crossed Deadman Creek and almost immediately rejoined the CDT. My shortcut cut off a good mile of BS and worked out beautifully.  

The flies were insane and I was hot and tired, so I decided to climb to a flat spot just above the trail and set up my tent under some trees for a while.  I was putting up my tent when I heard a voice say Tictac?  It was Gaucho and my shortcut had actually put me in front of him!  We talked for a bit and agreed on a campsite for the night and he took off, while I relaxed in my shaded tent away from the bugs for a half hour or so.

We are camped a few feet from the trail in a slightly flat spot just past a saddle between Little Deadman Creek and Divide Creek. I managed to get water a mile back from a very small seep a ways off the trail up Little Deadman Canyon. It took a while for the meager trickle to fill my bottles but it’s great to have plenty of water in camp. I tend to drink quite a bit throughout the night.

We did 21 miles and got into camp early even with all my messing around.  Just before dark a female hiker came by heading north. Her name was Dogma and I immediately liked her. She has some crazy hair and usually has a dog with her (dog-ma, get it?). Her dog suffered from an injury so she is on her own now. We talked for 10 minutes or so before she continued on her way. My feet feel a little better so I think I’m on to something with the slower pace.