Natalie on the IAT: Somewhere past my 300 mile mark

Well well, another few days of walking on my feet.

Tuesday morning I woke up and had a nice easy morning getting ready. I filtered water from the nearby stream packed up my stuff and was on my way. It was a beautiful day and the sun and breezes are always welcome as it keeps the mosquitoes at bay.

Around 11:00 I crossed a hwy and to the left about a city block was a bar called Fischer's. I had to go. I walk in and was greeted by my new best

friend Macy and I ordered a shorty Bud Light and start charging my electronics... I had run my phone down blogging the night before, not a smart move. My battery pack is good for about 1.5 charges and it had to make it 5 more days. Anyway, I order a chicken sandwich and start talking with Mike, the only other customer in the bar. He starts the delightful conversation of in a way I have heard a million times before:

Mike: Where are you from?
Me: I live in Madison.
Mike: Welcome to the United States.

Uproarious laughter.

I was immediately labeled a liberal and I played the part well. Anyway, we became fast friends and I learned about trucking and his late wife and he learned about Warrior Hike, filtering water, rehydrating meals, insect repellents that actually work etc. Mike bought me another shorty and by the time I left the bar, the lunch crowd had arrived. One guy actually knew about the IAT but didn't catch his name. Seemed nice though.

On I walked, already missing my newest best friend, and about a mile into the trail I hit the part I knew was coming, but was kind of hoping that the map was lying to me about... a river ford. The water was less than knee high, but pretty cold. I took my shoes off and crossed and then it took me

about 20 minutes to decide on the best course of action to get my feet dry and not super muddy! Because coming out of the water was just mud mud mud for a long ways. I first tried to balance on two small rocks sticking out of the mud. I managed to dry my feet and was trying to lift my leg to put my socks on... Nope. I did not have the coordination for that without falling back into the river. So then I opted for sandals. I walked a ways, found an old fallen tree and then put my shoes on... I had to rinse my feet multiple times and it took forever.

The day was really variable with lots of hills and logging trails. I did about 14 miles and was feeling pretty good about it. However, the spiders are now coming out and building webs... I face planted into occupied spider webs at least five times and was getting so frustrated by it that I started flailing my trekking poles in front of me. Especially when trees were fairly close together. I stopped that night at a rest stop which was awesome! Set my tent to overlook the lake and when I woke up in the morning, there was no dew to contend with AND AND AND it didn't get super cold

that night so I slept well, my feet could remain at the bottom of my bag so no fetal position sleeping AND I didn't have to talk myself into getting out of a nice warm bag into cold wet air (normally takes about an hour) so I actually got up and going right away and was walking by 9am! Awesome morning!

That day turned out to be a really easy day because all the trails were either old logging roads, ATV trails, or roads, very little actual trail segments. Also small world, the guy from the bar the day before (the one who knew about the IAT) passed me hauling a bunch of cut wood, no wonder he knew about the trail, he drives on it and maybe lives on it. So he says hi and I am back on my way. Talk about timing.

Anyway, I get to the point I was planning to stop, but with the easy trails and the early start it was only 3pm... So I decided to go a little further. Well, I end up going about 5 more miles and was getting pretty tired especially since I got lost again. Are you sick of hearing about me getting lost yet??? Because I'm sick of telling you I got lost! Here is the order in which I do things, I follow trail markers, when trail markers are not present THAT is when I pull out my GPS and follow that... So there is one trail marker and then I don't see any more, so I pull out my GPS and proceed to go down an ATV trail that isn't marked, but thheeeeenn my GPS just takes me into the straight up jungle and I bushwhack my way through until I pop back out onto the trail.. That had a sign. Yeah! So I don't even know what that was all about but before going into the jungle I looked all over for a sign and double-backed on myself twice to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Around 6pm I had been walking pretty continuously since 9am and had done about 16 miles. I was going to try and push another 5 miles out and get to a camp ground, that I had

intended on staying at the next night but decided to just plop down where I was. I did not look at the weather forecast.

That night I found out there were two primitive camp sites and also cabins for rent, I called about a cabin, nobody answered as it was late and thought I would decide in the morning. The mosquitoes were so thick that I tried to pee and was getting bit everywhere so I skipped that and retired to the safety of my tent. Around me was a constant sound of buzzing. I tried to record it with my camera.

That night I woke up at 230am to it pouring outside. I check to ensure none of my stuff is getting wet from the side of the tent and fall back asleep... It was still raining in the morning, so I just kept snoozing away, still raining - snooze... Then I started to move around about 1000, trying to talk myself into the reality that I'm was going to have to pack up in the rain. AccuWeather app was not accurate as it said it was not raining for hours, while rain fell from the sky so I could not trust it as to when it would 'stop' raining since it hadn't been raining according to it for hours.

And then I hear Jenni.

And we are reunited and she was absolutely drenched from head to toe. She

escaped the bugs in my tent's vestibule. I then told her about my thoughts on getting a cabin for the night and she is all for it. I called, there was one available and our spirits were lifted. Bonus is it was only about 4 to 5 miles away. We chit chat a bit and she takes off for the cabin. I get started packing up... And oh ya, it stopped raining.

It is however still humming outside with mosquitoes so for the first time I don what I have been carrying with me... My mosquitoes net face thing. And. I. Loved. It. Why had I not been using this earlier??!?! This was the worst day yet for mosquitoes. Literally a cloud was around me. I had my

rain coat on, the bug net and so my only exposed skin was my hands, which had a thick cover of Deet on them.

I passed the primitive campsite I was trying to make it to the night before. It was super nice with wood stacked ready for a fire by the lake!!! Just after the campsite the lake was overflowing into the trail. There was no avoiding the 30 foot-long flood, so I took my

shoes off and waded through... It went up to

my knees, it was higher than the river I had to ford the day before. It was muck at the bottom and when I got through it, the ground was soft I just kept walking barefoot

for the next quarter mile or so. I then got to a parking lot and dug out my sandals until I made it to the CABIN! Such a pretty sight.

Jenni was already there. We both spread our sopping wet gear out to dry, blasted the heat from the electric fire place and created a sauna atmosphere. I paid a buck at the coin showers and was a pretty happy Glamper (that's glamour camping).