This morning, we slept late, recovering from the festivities and night-hiking. Unbeknownst to us in the dark, we had made camp near a spring, and I took full advantage of it, collecting water and soaking my sore feet in its cool waters. After a hot meal of oatmeal with chia seed, we set off on the day's journey.
Several miles up the trail, we found Packrat, or rather, he found us by jumping out from behind a tree and scaring us. The three of us, then, hiked well into the night.
None of us had bothered to glance at our guides or maps, and we found ourselves climbing Jacob's Ladder, a particularly rigorous climb, by the light of our headlamps. Though, I found myself grateful for the circumstance; it would have been even more difficult in the daylight, constantly looking upward at the daunting climb.
Unfortunately, there was a large concentration of hikers along this stretch of trail, and all of the campsites were taken for miles. Moreover, the batteries in my headlamp died, forcing us to move more slowly by the light of only two headlamps. We did not find a suitable campsite until we reached Hog Back Gap, around 2:30 AM.
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