June 12

End: Chimney Creek
Daily: 23.9
Total: 680.8

We want to get to KM tomorrow, so we decided to try to make it to this creek tonight. But today was SO much elevation that it was a really long and tiring day. Beautiful though! I think we're geologically in the Sierra right now - at least that's what we've heard. I think that's why the trail has so much elevation change compared to normal.

We woke up to Pepe and Boots pretending to be a bear doing a pig impression. They had camped a mile back and started early this morning. We flip flopped with them until we took lunch.

Right after lunch was a gigantic climb. By the end of the climb we still had 5 miles to do before camp, and I was so ready to stop. Byt then I remembered we had whiskey in our packs as a treat for camp. We drank a very small amount if whiskey (we're lightweights, especially after doing so much exercise), and somehow that lit a fire under me. I was gone! Chris couldn't even keep up. I finished the last 4.5 miles in an hour and a half. I wonder if that trick works reliably (update from two days later: it totally does NOT work all the time - we tried it again the next day and I was sooo slow). I think part of it is that my knee had been hurting all day, and that dulled the pain a little. Which isn't really good; I don't want to hike while masking pain. I've only taken two ibuprofen and one Aleve the whole trip, and the ibuprofen was taken at night to reduce inflammation.

Okay, gotta sleep. KM in T-minus 21.4 miles.