A day on the trail

A "normal" day on the trail for me means waking up sometime between 6-7:30, grabbing a quick breakfast (lately a Cliff Bar smothered in PB), packing my stuff and hitting the trail. I'm typically hiking by 8 or 9. The last several days I've spent the majority of my time hiking alone. If there's any cool views or if I pass a sunny spot to sit I'll take off my pack and rest for a bit. Every one to two hours on the trail I'm eating something. Usually granola, trail mix, or a bar. Food on the trail deserves it's own post, it will get one soon enough. 

Around  noon I'll try to find a good spot to chill for a bit, often people will end up congregating at the same spot-- kind of like people do at the water cooler at an office. After a 30 min or so break I'm moving again. I typically end up at a shelter somewhere between 3-5pm. Once there I lay out my pad and sleeping bag to claim a spot in the shelter (I've been lazy about setting up my tent and there's been plenty of space in the shelters). Next I go get water and filter it, unless I know it's going to freeze overnight, in which case I wait til morning. I'll then make dinner- typically a pasta dish. Once I've eaten dinner I put away all my food and cooking gear and bear bag it.  People usually end up gathering in the shelter for an hour or two to cook and chat and sometimes sing. Once it starts to get dark everyone heads to their tents or sleeping bags to get some shut eye before doing it all again the next day.