Day 8 & 9

Day 8 – Mike’s Place – 32km
Felt strange leaving camp on my own. Going to try n make it to “Mike’s Place” first 6 miles pretty good with shade and water. Stopped for my usual breakfast, cold soaked oats with protein powder, flaxseed meal and cranberries. Yum yum. Next 10 Mike’s is up hill exposed to the sun. Arrived at Mike’s place at 6pm SHATTERED! Climbed to 6000 feet (1800mtrs)
Everyone was raving about this crazy place called Mike’s… Well they weren’t wrong on arrival to this shack I could smell BBQ.. yep wood fired pizza was being prepared. Found a spot to put my tent up and joined the rest of the “hiker trash”.Cold beer in a chilly bin and on the table was a large bag of tobacco, sack of mixed papers etc and a tub of weed saying “table weed” take what you need only. LoL never seen this before.The pizza was the best I had ever had and I slept like a log…Day 9 – Mary’s place. 30kmYesterday was a hot climb, today was a hot desent. No water for 18 miles so was a big carry along with my 5 days of food.This is what they call a water cache. Volunteers (Trail Angels) keep them stocked at their own expense during the season.Really keen to reach Mary’s as there was a water tank along with a long drop (luxury). I stopped every 2 hours and at about 1pm found a cool Rock to lay under (after I beat my poles around to scare off snakes🥺Last 6 miles (10km) was brutal. My heals we’re starting to burn as the down hill turned to uphill, I had drunk all my water but when I saw the camp site and the smiling faces of the rest of group my heart lifted. I am always the last to leave camp and last to arrive.