"I had a snack"

"Did you see the lightning storm last night?"

It started around 1:00 AM. Normally, as a safety precaution, we track the time between lightning sightings and thunder soundings. Tonight, there was no hope of doing so. The flashes were so frequent that we would see multiple flashes before thunder started. It was a constant light show with an accompanying symphony. The raw beauty and power of nature was stunning. At least until I fell asleep again.

The rain had stopped by the time we woke up. More than likely, the heat of the day was enough solar energy to prevent the moisture from solidifying and falling, but at night fall, the cool air was unable to contain the evaporated water any longer. We anticipated another clear day, although we took caution anyway.

We have a nearly constant uphill climb to start the day. We also anticipate that today will be the hardest hiking day of the trip (we were right). We get to see 4 more vistas on the way to the Bradley Wales picnic area where we stop for lunch. There are some exciting features at the picnic area. First, there's an established latrine--stocked with toilet paper. This means no digging, and that we can extend our precious supply of toilet paper. If not for this luxury, some of us may have run out.

The second luxury of the picnic area was a water pump with potable water. No need to filter our water here. We drank as much water as we cared to and refilled quite easily before we left. We also had a fair amount of fun using the hand pump to bring water up a couple hundred feet.

David illustrated his dumpster diving skills at the picnic area as well. He noticed a tent in the trash can--presumably not a very good one. What caught his eye were the cords on the tent. They were perfectly good cords with reflective pieces of sheathing. So he did what any self-respecting outdoorsman would do--took the rope and left the tent in the trash. The ropes would serve us well in the coming days as we set up rain flies.

After lunch, it was another 3 miles to our campsite. With about a mile left, my right hip started to throb with pain, and I had to slow my pace considerably. Before making the final push, we took a significant break, in which we obtained the quote for the day.

I made some kind of fictitious comment to one of the boys and they almost fell for it. I then told them that "gullible" was written in the clouds. At this point, Will got excited and told a story (Will could be the poster child for ADHD).

"I once told my brother that 'gullible' was the 2,761st word in the dictionary. Funny thing is that I was right!"

"Will, how do you know you were right. Did you check his counting?"

"No, I watched him count the words in the dictionary?"

"You did not! How do you focus long enough to watch your brother count to 2,761?"

"I had a snack."

After finally reaching the campsite, we looked around. It was another campsite scarce on water and heavy on mosquitoes. Danny looked at the map and decided that it'd be better to hike up a quarter mile to the next vista and camp there. The only caveat was that we'd have to come back to get water and carry the water to the campsite. Even with the extra work for water, it was a great decision.

From the vista, the only man-made object we could see was the bike trail through the gorge. A couple of us laid out our ground pads, laid down on the vista, and just enjoyed the relaxing view, perhaps while reading a book. The mosquitoes were light and the setting was perfect. Falling asleep was augmented with the satisfying feeling of being more than half a day ahead of schedule.