June 11 Mile 686

As I mentioned, we normally wake up at sunrise, which now is between 5:30 and 6:00. During the day while we hike, we rarely hear a bird chirp. But as the sun comes up, they are chirping like crazy- hundreds of them it seems like. I guess they are telling us to get up!
We knew we'd have a short hiking day today- about 10 miles or so. We had to position ourselves for the hike up to Dragon's Tooth and other rock formations. Our hiker's guide showed no camping sites and few water past mike 685. So today, the trail took us up a ridge, a tough climb in the morning heat. But at the top- what's this? A bench! A very nice amenity we rarely see. Then we had a long ridge hike. On the way ( we didn't stop off) was a memorial to Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII and he was killed in a plane crash somewhere near here.
My feet were doing better today, but again it was very warm. After coming down the ridge, we got to a really nice creek at about 2 PM. One of the surprises of the day was that the person that had been the noisiest at the campsite earlier in the week passed me on the trail and apologized. Most appreciated.
At the creek we ran into Tunes and Tootsie Pops again. As we were talikng by a gravel road, as man drove by in his pickup and said "I'm going to the dump, but I'll be back in aboug an hour and I'll bring each of you a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream." We were stunned. Sure enough, an hour later he returned- one pint for each of us plus a precious banana. Now a pint of Brn and Jerry's has about 1200 calories and lots of fat. How many of us health conscious folks eat that at one sitting? You sure can out here. Eat whatever you want- you won't gain weight. Downed the whole thing, cooled my feet in the creek and decided to hike a short distance to find a camping spot, carrying our water supply with us up the mtn. Found a small flat spot by te trail and in for the night.Tomorrow-Dragon's Tooth!


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