SUMMARY:  We encountered all the usual trail challenges today—miles of burned forest, lots of creek and river crossings, plus some tough uphills and downhills. We seem to have escaped the forest fire smoke at last, so we had blue sky and fresh air. But probably the most amazing thing of all was the “horse superhighway” which had several “lanes”. We followed it for much of the day and met lots of horses and pack trains going in both directions.

A highlight of the day was when we reached the “The Parting of the Waters”, where a creek flows right down the Divide, but divides in two when it reaches the valley. On one side it goes to the Atlantic, the other to the Pacific. We got there at dinnertime and just hung out for awhile before doing a killer climb up to where we are now camped at 10,000 feet.

DETAILS:  We’ve switched to getting up at 5:30 instead of 5:20 (the days are shortening!) but we were still on trail by 6:00 am today.  Even though the ground was awfully lumpy, I still slept OK.  But I am finding that more and more, I’m tired and sleepy DURING the day–it’s been a long trail to get here, and I guess I’m just getting “wore out”??  Yesterday, Fixit mentioned, “Only one more month and a bit, and we are done!”   Thinking about that has been a big help to me.  When I start to feel discouraged because I’m so tired, I say to myself, “Only one more month, just one more month” and I feel much more cheerful!

Most of this morning, we were hiking through burned forest that is just beginning to regrow.  That means lots of knee-high plants hanging over the trail, and it’s harder to use our trek poles.  We passed a really cute little ranger cabin with bear boxes by it–a great place to camp, but it was still morning!

There were lots of river and creek crossings today–mostly rockhops, some fords, and one log.  I crawled across that log and was almost done when Tattoo Joe came along.  “Are you all right?” he asked.  “Yes, I just don’t like walks across logs,” I said.  Of course TJoe bopped right across the log, and so did Fixit.  We leapfrogged with him for the rest of the day.  He told us he does 30 miles every day, no matter what.  He’s very friendly and fun to talk to–he knows a lot of hikers, has done the CDT before, and has lots of helpful info.

Well, before noon we crossed a river (ford), hiked a little bit farther, and found ourselves on the “horse superhighway.”  No kidding.  The trail has lanes and is totally covered with horse prints.  We met so many horse/pack trains, going in both directions!  And one of the horse destinations was to “The Parting of the Waters”, which is where we were going, so we had no problem with wondering where the trail went!  It was fun meeting all the horses and mules, but some of the critters did NOT like us and behaved badly.

Of course, every time we came to brushy areas, I would start yelling, “Hey grizz!  Hikers!   Coming through!”  By dinnertime, we had reached The Parting of the Waters.  It’s a lovely, peaceful spot, great for a dinner stop.  Tattoo Joe was there, too, so we had another chance to hang out with him, before he headed out to finish his 30 miles. And of course we had to take the obligatory pictures of us straddling the creek where it divided.  One part goes east, to the Atlantic, and the other goes west, to the Pacific.

Then we tackled a big climb–2,000′ in only 3 miles, from 8,000′ elevation to 10,000′.  Boy were we tired by the time we got to the top!   We wasted no time finding a campsite in a grove of trees where we’d be protected from the wind.  It’s pretty open and alpine up here, and it is nice to listen to the sound of the wind in those trees!  Whew, are we tired!