Cole Mountain Bald, June 10th

The children camped here woke up really early making so much noise for the morning.  They started to build a fire right outside my tent. I feel cranky. I'm so tired.

We crossed mile 800 today.

It's even hotter today in the 90s. We had some mild climbs today but I had to keep taking heat breaks. At 10 miles in to the next shelter there's a river and I went right in. There was some confusion on where the swimming hole was suppose to be since each guide book had something different to say about it. I'm pretty sure that we passed it a half mile back and I was not going to go back. It was barely knee deep in the deepest spot but it was just too hot not to lay in it. Dirty Duck and I submerged ourselves to cool off. The water was actually quite cold. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Everyone else besides Dirty Duck and myself headed out around 2 in the heat. We stayed behind to nap and rest wanting to wait until later in the day to finish the hike we all planned since it's a steep uphill next and it was just too hot. I'm not sure why but most of my toes lost feeling. I was rubbing them and it didn't quite come back.

My shoes are starting to fall apart.

The bugs are getting quite miserable and biting like crazy. They are the tiniest little flies and they bite so bad. I have bug bites all over my legs and hands.

Dirty Duck and I left at 5pm to head back out on the trail. It was really rough. Some sections were so rediculously steep it was so unnecessary. They should have had switch backs through this section. It was still miserably hot but as the day went on it cooled off. At this rate we would have arrived in camp right at dark. We were actually planning on staying at the last shelter but it was .6 mile off the trail and no one wanted to walk it so we decided to push on to the next campsite 2.5 miles beyond that. On the last peak of the day it turned out to be a bald. We got there right at sunset. It was just so pretty, none of the pictures that I took did it justice. Towards the end of the bald I decided that it was the perfect place to camp. There were views to the east and west meaning we would also see the sunrise in the morning. It was a bit windy but so worth it. We are camped on this plush layer of soft grass and got to see the sun fade away. We were also able to see all the lights turn on to the east. We could see a ferris wheel off in the distance blinking. Then the moon came out. It was full and bright orange. I couldn't get a good photo but it was just so large and bright. Such an amazing way to end the night. I'm sure everyone else we are hiking with camped a mile or 2 up the trail will be jealous. But they have water, we are concerningly low on water.

Tonight at Cole Mountain I'm camped at mile 811.7 with 1378.1