Sleep was great on the soft sand and my bag is so warm that I haven't yet had to actually get in it, I just lay it on top of me like a blanket. It's a unique bag that can be unzipped fully to make a blanket so that's how I've been using it. While we were eating, the hikers from Trail Pass came by and they were off the trail. I yelled across the meadow to tell them where it was and I watched them carefully because I wasn't sure where it went to. according to the map there was a shortcut through a pass above the spring where that fed the meadow and I planned to go due west over the little saddle and reconnect with the trail instead of going all the way around. Sprinkles and Bandit originally agreed with this and then they decided against it. I got stubborn and I went over the saddle and sat in the trail and waited for them. Later that day we went by Chicken Spring Lake and the fellas were really itching to go fishin so we went up there. It was totally frozen. We kinda lost the trail after that and continued to lose it all day. We encountered a few other lakes which weren't frozen and Sprinkles was really trying to get us to stay there so they could fish but I really wanted to try and et down to a legit campsite and get some real mileage in so they conceded and we headed down to Rock Spring Camp. My feet had been soggy almost all day it was starting to take it's toll on the condition of my skin. I started to just walk in every stream to cool my feet, reduce swelling and create some squishyness in there. When we finally got to Rock Creek we were glad we did because it was huge and there were plenty of trout. I'm going to have to get a backpacking rod.
After I set up my tent I set about to collect some wood for a fire. The fellas went fishing and I knew we were going to need some coals. It was really difficult to find wood of any significant size because obviously this campsite had been camped out. Even the branches in the trees had been taken. I managed to get enough for a decent fire and got it going. Bandit and Sprinkles caught 6 small trout (Golden Trout). Dinner was going to be interesting! Bandit cut up some garlic and onions and made 3 trout packets for cooking. It was cool eating fresh fish but of course we were worried about bears so we had to burn everything.
Then came the diarrhea. At some point my bowels decided to go haywire. I don't know if it was the fish or something else but it continued through the night and I had to get up and sneak through the woods and cut cat holes several times. I was pretty worried. I had four or five days of hiking left and certainly not enough toilet paper for this kind of activity. I hoped I wouldn't have to resort to using snow; although, at least there was plenty of that around...
David AKA “Mister F. Gentle Spirit”
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