I just had probably the best night sleep on the trail so far, I slept in a little bit to 6:30 am. A lot of people around camp had already left to beat the heat, but that’s fine, I’ve been enjoying my new morning routine. I packed up camp, fetched a bit more water from the cache, and headed out around 7:45 am.

The trail climbed quite strongly for the first couple of hours, and my breakfast spot came with a good view. I mixed some dried kiwifruit from Julian into my oatmeal which added a bit of sharpness to the whole thing.

After breakfast the trail continued to wind through the mountains. Somewhere along the top I passed a cave which looked like it was dug out for someone to shelter in at one point.

Before the descent, I reached a point where I could see the next 4 miles of trail. The path coiled around the mountains below and I could see the next 2 hours of hiking right in front of me.

Near the bottom of the descent, the trail crossed a significant milestone, the 100 mile marker. Other hikers have marked the trail with stones to commemorate.

At the trailhead just a mile later, a very kind man was giving away food to hikers, trail magic at 101 miles! I had been considering to camp here, but the trail magic gave me a boost in energy to continue to the next campsite 4 miles up the trail. It also sounded a bit better than camping close to the road.

The last 4 miles of the day were a dramatic contrast to the previous 100 miles. From mountains and desert, the environment suddenly changed to vast grassy meadows. I walked across huge wide valleys covered in lush green grass, scenes straight out of a movie.

The trail stretched out before me, and while walking I saw birds in all directions, even an eagle. There were lizards running along the path and tiny snakes in the grass. The path was very gentle and before I knew it, I had arrived at camp.

Willem, Lucy, Krista and MJ were already set up here and I joined them for dinner. I spent the evening making grilled tortillas and listening to the sound of a creek running next to camp.