Day One Continued

That night, after camp had been setup, we had a nice dinner of macaroni and chesse with tuna by the river that was flowing past the shelter. The bear bag was hung by the superiorly cool PCT Method and we went to sleep. Just as I was falling asleep, I heard a rustling coming up from the river and getting closer. The footsteps, which were quite heavy, kept coming closer and closer. I opened my eyes and squinted in the blackness. I could see an outline of a black figure approaching. The figure said, "Hi. Sorry if I woke you." Cool. It wasn't a bear that was going to eat us. Many thru-hikers are crazy people. They wake up at first light and walk all day. Some of them don't even stop until after dark. The fear nothing. They neither need to eat nor sleep nor rest. They are machines. We are proud of our 14 mile days. They settle with their 30 mile days. Hopefully, one day, we will be able to do 20 and not die.