5/28 mile 602-630.8 (28.8 miles)

Today I awoke to a strange scene- the sky was covered in a thick blanket of fog.  It was eerily reminiscent of mornings on the Washington coast, which is my favorite place to be, and it gave me a tremendous psychological boost.  I thought about home all throughout the morning.

Ok, lets talk about the wind- from mile 550-mile 700 the wind is a constant, malevolent presence.  For this stretch there is a 30mph constant wind, with gusts up to 75 miles. Wind complicates everything out here.  Eating becomes a nightmare. A lot of hiker food turns into a fine powder from the constant jostling of trail life, and powders have a tendency to blow away in high winds.  When your caloric demands are as high as ours, any impediment to eating is an instant nemesis.  Peeing is also very difficult.  For all of my male readers I suggest an experiment:  have a friend drive a car at 60 MPH, roll down the window and try to pee out the window.  What happens?  Your healthy stream of urine, turns into a misty cloud of piss that saturates everything.  Shelters are a no go in this section.  The wind will blow them down immediately.  To sleep, one must tuck themselves into a bush.

So here we are, urine soaked, underfed, and sleeping in bushes.  During this stretch, all of us have been running at a low level of insanity.  Nearly everyone has lost their temper and screamed profanities into the wind.  I am finding it really hard to work on being a better thing in conditions like this.  In summation: the wind is never here when you need it (like when you are being chased by hornets or have to escape somewhere via sailboat) and always around when you don't  (all other circumstances).