14 miles today. Total miles so far: 69.
Today's cold wind convinced me I needed to keep the layer I'd considered ditching to save weight, but I'd much rather have the cold than heat. Today, I walked the route backwards (westbound rather than eastbound) to have shorter pick up at end of day nearer the Airbnb. I needed to finish early enough to grade finals and finish some work-related tasks, so I didn't take as many breaks and planned fewer miles for what turned out to be an uneventful day, apart from some mud and meeting my first backpackers, who seemed dissatisfied that the trail infrastructure wasn't like that of the much, much more popular Appalachian Trail. Jeff got to the pickup point before me and walked in to meet me with "Dr. Santee, I presume?" which made me chuckle. When I untapped my feet after the hike, the blisters had merged into the biggest one of my life and had broken open, which was worrisome.
