a few redeeming happenings

Day 36 ~ miles 616 - 633

Today really sucked overall, but a few redeeming events did take place.

Here's the bad:
-We hiked a mile and a half off trail for water, down a gully and over some boulders.  (It felt kind of adventurous, but I was still not happy about adding extra miles onto the day.)
-The water source was a small pond with plentiful algae and tadpoles; not the kind of water you would want to drink, but we had no choice.
-There's no water for several miles, so we loaded up with 5 liters each.  Imagine adding more than 10 pounds of water to your backpack at once!
-We walked uphill for most of the day.  Sometimes through very loose sand that required soo much additional energy to trudge through (our extra heavy packs made it more difficult).  The miles went by sooo slowly.
-The sandy terrain gave us both new pains.
-Storm clouds loomed for much of the day, and finally broke loose on us in the afternoon as we were in the midst of a serious ascent.  We got drenched and cold in the sideways rain and gusty winds.

The good:
-We each got a bag of potato chips from a southbound secton hiker (thanks, Goaltech - you much improved our day!)
-We saw some fighter jets make a playground of the mountain we were on, flying down low to the ground.
-We saw 2 rainbows.
-We have a great campsite to ourselves with beautiful views (though it's nearly too cold to enjoy it).

Hoping for a fantastic day tomorrow!