I really like it here in the basin.  I love the big views and the animals and the easy miles.  The trail is mostly 2-track dirt roads.  Today I saw numerous antelope herds, some wild horses (one up close), several horny toads, and of course cows.  I also saw the skin of a gutted antelope. I saw no other hikers today, and only two trucks on the main dirt road which the CDT follows for a short distance.

Today at 3:00 I found a small shady spot behind some rocks.  Shade is very rare out here so this was quite a find.  I laid out my ground cloth and pack and dozed for 20 minutes.  So nice!  Tomorrow is supposed to be much hotter so I may repeat this if possible during the hot time of the day.

I did 27 miles to get to a water cache.  I’m camped in the little corral next to the cache.  The cache had a logbook and I saw several other hikers were here earlier today, including Townie and Animal.  Gaucho was here yesterday, and Mav the day before.

My bad ankle started to really hurt today after 16 miles and wouldn’t stop until I took 4 more ibuprofens. That was a grand total of 12 today.  I know they are bad for me, but I need to finish the hike and I couldn’t really walk otherwise.