Miles: 28 Steps: 56,748 Vertical gain: 4,050 feet Liquid consumed: 140 oz. Wildlife: Cattle, rabbits, dogs, pigs, goats Faith in Humanity: Met a few nice people in Beaver, UT. I was so exhausted though that didn’t interact too much. Wow, what a day. Today I thought: why not push myself a bit? I just took a day off, I’ve been gaining quite a bit of fitness over the last 4 and a half months, so why not see what my body is capable of, without hurting myself. I essentially hiked 28 miles in just over 8 hours with 4,000 feet of elevation gain with my full pack on! I only took a break for maybe 45 seconds to get a bit of food and switch hats quick which required taking my pack off. I was out the door quick this morning. Followed frozen streams all day, first on gravel roads, then on hiking trails in Fish Lake National Forest, then back on gravel roads into town. The trail started to fade in and out for a few miles, but thankfully it was still easy enough to follow. Today I was on the American Discovery Trail route all day and I must say: it’s pretty good. I’ve followed the route of the ADT for a lot of the state of Utah. A lot of the ADT is on dirt roads, but it also takes a number of obscure trails which are pretty cool. The road walk from Moab to Needles was spectacular! The route through Capitol Reef was really cool. Today, the route was neat as I could tell the trails taken were seldom used and provide a cool route through a place not many people go. I like it. I also have diverged from the ADT quite a bit in Canyonlands(amazing!), Dark Canyon (also amazing!), Old Boulder Mail Trail from Boulder to Escalante (guess what??? Amazing!). The hike was a bit cold first thing in the morning but the 4,000 foot climb warmed me up a bit. I climbed on nice quiet dirt roads which eventually turned into hiking trails. Some of the waypoints had some pretty obscure instructions so I was wondering if the trail actually existed, but it turned out to be pretty nice tread with only a couple brief moments of confusion. At one point I heard a pretty loud ice breaking noise and it startled me a bit. Sounded like a big animal but I couldn’t see... probably a deer or some cattle. I walked into town and I was exhausted! I ate some food and retired early to my cheap hotel. Another pretty big day tomorrow to Milford, UT then a couple of days off to get my bicycle set up and organized. Kind of fun to be out here in December getting after it!