Miles: 22 Steps: 46,170 Vertical gain: Strava Knows! Liquid consumed: 144 oz. Wildlife: 1 Lizard, birds, little mouse running alongside the road Faith in Humanity: No one stole or broke into Naomi’s car! Another interesting and varied day of Walk The Parks! We’ve been getting quicker with our routine every morning and today was no exception: we were packed up and hiking slightly before 7am! We only had another mile at the bottom of Dark Canyon then we took a side canyon up briefly before a huge climb out via a steep talus slope. I really enjoyed this, as the “trail” gained something like 1,300 feet in less than a mile. That’s really steep! At the rim there were a bunch of cool rock formations reminding us of the Needles District in Canyonlands a few days earlier. Eventually we spit out onto dirt road’s that would lead us back to Naomi’s car. I miscalculated and thought it’d only be 10 Mile or so but it was a bit over 12 in the end. No big deal though. Terrain was pretty flat, it was a beautiful day with a high of about 70 and the last few miles towards Hite were incredibly scenic with big red rock formations and cool canyons. I sped ahead at the end of the hike and drive Naomi’s car to pick her up as her ankle was bothering her a bit. We drove back to where the car was initially parked and it was time for me to organize. I had left a bunch of things in her car: new shoes(feel soooo good!), food for the next section, water, paper maps, and a couple of gear items (micro spikes for potential snow). In the end, my pack was HEAVY! 6 liters of water, 5 days of food, and cold weather gear equates to a very heavy pack! Oh well, it’s still cool to have everything I need on my back in these extreme conditions. It was great to spend 6 days with Naomi. She’s a great friend and an easy going and fit hiking companion. We didn’t argue once. And had a great time. We said goodbye and she was on her way back to Park City. And now I’m back alone on the trip. I’d love it if more people came and joined me for a bit! Come on out! I had a couple of hours until sunset, so of course I hiked onward! Got an additional 5 miles in with the heavy pack, on paved Utah Highway 95. I went well off the road to a beautiful hidden campsite I made next to a Juniper Tree and some cool sandstone done roach formations surrounding me. Cowboy camping under the stars tonight. Seems like there’s very close to 0% chance of rain, so why not? Viable banking for me means: tyvek groundsheet on the ground, sleeping pad and gear on top, then me in my sleeping bag in an ultralight bivy sack. Good times! I do miss my tent quite a bit, but it’s not hard to get used to this either. Paved road walk most of the day tomorrow, but I’m pretty excited because this section of road is absolutely amazing. Huge, towering red rock canyons and all our awesomeness! A car just zooms last everything and I’m genuinely excited to take it in at a 3mph pace. Looking into the somewhat near future: I hope the weather holds! I have a ton of ground to cover over 9,000 feet and that might be tricky if a big snowstorm comes in! It’ll all work out, just feel like I’ve gotten quite lucky so far, hopefully that will continue!