I spent my first night cowboy camping under clear skies on a moonless night. I have never seen so many stars before. The Milky Way stretches out straight overhead in such detail you could clearly pick out the knots of stars, holes from dark dust clouds, and the bulge of stars in Sagittarius that is the center of our galaxy. Before sunrise, there was a beautiful crescent moon next to Venus. It gave me some comfort that Vanessa was probably looking at this same crescent moon on her early morning drive to the gym.

Today I met up with Ant and Rat several times during the day. Their strategy is to locate the best shade and relax there during the hottest parts of the day then make up the hours lost by night hiking when it’s nice and cool. I was kind of skeptical since with all the cow paths crisscrossing the “trail” it is pretty easy to get lost even during the day. So, my strategy that night was to head out after a belly full of dinner and keep going until I tired or became ridiculously lost then camp and straighten out the mess in the morning. Turns out night hiking is brilliant!!! Yes, I did go off trail a lot but when you can’t see very well, you start to use your other senses. Your footsteps sound and feel different when you go off trail and you realize your off trail within a step or two. I was able to squeeze out another five miles in the dark and made it to mile 50 on the second day 🙂