209.7 down, 1976.2 to go
It was pouring down rain all morning, a bit tougher to get going on those days. We made great time, once we realized 20 minutes in that there was no point in avoiding the puddles, as our boots were going to get wet regardless.
The sun made a guest appearance mid day. After we crossed Orbeton Stream, we were on a hill putting our boots back on and NotYets Croc started tumbling down the hill. We watched it silently, as it seemed to roll in slow motion. It seemed like it was going to stop, but it kept going. And going. Finally it stopped right before hitting the stream. We were laughing uncontrollably.
Unitic caught back back up to us at that point and the three of us began our ascent to Poplar Ridge, where we would stay in the shelter that night. We made it into camp around 3 and were able to set our bear line cord across two trees to get the only source of sun at the shelter site (conveniently located right in the middle of the trail.) No one seemed to mind ducking under it and a few NoBos ended up hanging there clothes up on it to.
We made the decision to switch to trail running shoes. After seeing the majority of NoBos in Brooks Cascadias -- a running shoe company local to where we live, we have done wear testing for them -- we figured our feet will be wet when it's raining days on end anyway, so what's the point of bulky boots...our boots, from Salomon are already starting to come apart (especially mine) after just over 200 miles...Our parents are shipping the shoes to us in the next couple towns.
At camp, four guys attempted to start a fire using toilet paper, dry paper, Vaseline and cotton balls, fuel and an emergency fire starting kit with no luck. At first we figured it was the wet wood, but after about two hours of trying and finally giving up, we realized it was the rocks that were stacked around the fire too high to ventilate. Oh well.
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