Day 20: camping by an unnamed lake that we thought we would have all to ourselves

21 miles
June 24

The good news: my calf doesn't feel as sore this morning.
The bad: my heel blister on my right foot is getting worse, and I'm inadvertently toe-walking to avoid putting pressure on it, causing my calf to cramp up throughout the day.

We settle into a walking rhythm, dubbing ourselves the Tortoise and the Hare, since I'm a slow but steady hiker, and Kacie likes to hike fast and take breaks. It seems to be working our fairly well for us.

Early in the morning a hiker couple (Freckles and Jawbone) pass us, and then a couple of hours later we pass them as they're napping by a stagnant lake. Haha, we passes other thru hikers! (It only half counts, I realize)

We have a plan to make it to a lake off trail for some water, and then a campsite not too far after that, making it a 21 miles day. Late in the afternoon Freckles and Jawbone start catching up to us, so we start booking it, joking that they're going to take the camping spot. Just then the trail starts to get ridiculously hard. We are both sweating and panting, and finally we give up when we reach the top of a hill, and let them pass. We tell them we're headed to a lake (which they are unaware of), and then we slowly follow after them.

Eventually we come to a small lake, in a valley below us, with no trail down. We see some skree marks down the side of the mountain, and I joke that it was probably Freckles and Jawbone.

We see a camping spot by the lake and decide that once we get down there we should just stay there for the night. We walk another few miles before we come to a road the branches in two directions, one uphill, one downhill, and try to figure out which one leads to the lake.
After a bad incident with a road and water the night before, Kacie decides we should go uphill ( even though that doesn't make much sense to me). We take the gamble, and sure enough, a quarter mile later we reach the lake!

And who is there? Freckles and Jawbone! In the camping spot! They see us and Freckles starts apologizing, saying they saw us walking up on the trail, but figured we were going past the lake since we didn't skree down like they did. She said they were saving the camping spot for us, since we told them we were coming here, but once we walked past they decided to set up camp. They are very nice, but we decide they are enemies.
We root around looking for a spot to pitch tent, and settle on a flat, but extremely dusty area. Blegh.
The lake is not as lovely as we thought, and it's hard to get good, clearish water.

We make a fire, wash ourselves (and socks) in the lake, eat a good meal complete with dessert, and go to bed only slightly cursing the nice couple next to us.

My feet are killing me.