CDT10
4th May Thursday

20miles today 7to7 a long day
The morning was cool when we started off today.  I’ts the tenth day on my trail and the first time camping next to a stream.  It was good to have a decent  wash after a long day.  A change from using the wipes.

The path this morning was easy and we came across plenty  of Cerian’s (a pile of rocks) along the way to point us in the right direction

We came across the creator of these Cerian’s, he was waiting for us.  At first I thought he had a dog so I had my walking stick at the ready.  He was tall with coke bottle glasses,  dressed in army camouflage clothing  and carrying rosary beads.  He liked to talk but he could see we just wanted to keep moving so he walked with us for a while.  He came out here 18 years ago, this he told us many times, and after helping his friend build an access road, a cabin was built for him as payment.
Further along the trail was an all year water spring, the old guy was telling us that one of the hikers today did his business  a bit too close to the water source.  He said he knew who it was and wanted us, once we caught up with him, to educate  him in what bears do in the woods.  Ken told him that he’s not a trail police.  We did catch up with this hiker but said nothing and by the looks of him, he was having a hard time under the extreme  conditions of both hill climbing and hot weather.

This could be the hiker 

Finally we stopped for the night next to the river, it’s been a really long day where we started  at 7am  and finished 12 hours later at 7pm. The sun was hot and in the last couple of hours we did many river crossing which was a pleasant  change.

Great views along the way

The marks on the tree  are trail markers. If the top one is either to the left or right then that’s the way you go. But in this case we go straight ahead

A water  hole where  we refilled our bottles