Mile 1,236.1 - 1,259.7

I woke up this morning happy not to feel any shin pain. That's a huge relief because it really hurt me yesterday. I was worried because if it was something serious, it would be game over. 

We haven't seen that many hikers the last few days but today it changed.

The first this morning we met Double Tap, then a section hiker named John. Then going to a spring we met Poundcake.

We had a 8 mile downhill to the Middle Fork River where we swam. It is the best swimming hole on trail. It was amazing. We sat in the river for over an hour. If you sat right on the rocks it felt like jacuzzi jets hitting your body. We were so happy to finally relax  and enjoy ourselves for once, forgetting about the 8 mile climb that is to come once leaving the water.

By mid afternoon, we did leave. It was a monster of a climb but we were fresh. Mosquitoes were out as well as plenty of poison oak. Hot, sweaty, buggy, monster hill climb, and mosquitoes all over the place. Sound fun? Good thing we swam, or our misery index may have been off the charts.

Balance cooling off in the Middle Fork River.

Y-Knot in the jacuzzi. This was an awesome swimming hole. Our favorite so far. The bridge in the photo is the PCT. we had to go over it to continue north.

Balance crossing the Middle Fork River high on the bridge.

The two small dots in the water are our hiking friends Justin and Luke. They arrived after us and were still swimming when we left. This photo is from the bridge high above the river.