Sunrise at Frog Spring

Day 98: (19 miles)
mile  1304.1 – 1323.1

We have a bit of a late start this morning.  That climb in the heat really broke us down.  But back at it again we go.  We carry 2-3 liters of water as water resources are limited and it should be hot again.  In actuality its sort of humid…almost cool as in 80’s. 

This icy cold water rushes into the trough like water through a fire hose

We come upon Cold Spring and load up again.  We end up passing two good springs that aren’t on Halfmile’s maps or Yogi’s notes.  We make it to Carter Meadows that’s supposed to be a good water spot.  The water source is pond a 1/2 mile down a hill. We leave our packs behind  a downed tree not needing to carry the weight. After what seems to be more like mile we hear water running. To our surprise we find a cold spring running out from between some rocks. It’s a relief not having to deal with scummy pond water and battle our leaking (profusely) platypus bladder. We collected 7 liters: 2 to cook dinner and breakfast with, 1 to drink with dinner and 4 to drink on trail tomorrow. We drink as much water as we can before carrying the water back up the hill. We find Ms. Frizzle at the top setting up camp for the night. We joined her (and several large black ants) for dinner sharing details of yesterday’s 5200 ft. climb. We also celebrate in advance that tomorrow we cross the halfway mile mark. Oh ya! After dinner we say good by to Ms. Frizzle and set off to do 2moremiles (really). We find a good location, set up camp when we realize the sunset is going to be awesome with the evening clouds.  We are surrounded by trees without a view. Much discussion takes place to pack up and move to be able to view the sky, but exhaustion overrules. We crawl into bed and quickly forget about the sunset because now all we can think of is the damn black flies that buzz outside by the thousands turning the forest into a roaring weed whacker. Yet, we are still having a good time.