Our tents were in the sun this morning so it was warm and easier to get up. We really intended to start on time, but then Apple the trail angel drove up to refill the water tank and we ended up talking to him for a while. He also shared Gatorade, Oreos, and Doritos with us, which was a great addition to breakfast.

It was only 11.8 miles to Route 114 and it was mostly on dirt roads or old road beds. A good portion of it was in the trees but some clouds also came in after lunch to provide shade.

There wasn’t much traffic on the road but we still didn’t wait too long for a ride from Mary and Larry, a really interesting older couple who drove us all the way into Gunnison. They dropped us off downtown and we walked over to Mario’s Pizza to catch up on calories. I definitely drank way too much soda while waiting for the pizza to come out, which filled me up and kept me from being able to eat my whole pizza! It was very sad but then I had leftovers anyway.

SlumberKat and Brian arrived while we were still working on the pizza and ordered their own. We finally made it out of town and drove down to Curecanti National Recreation Area to camp on Blue Mesa Reservoir for the night. One of the campgrounds we pulled into was literally just a parking lot even though it had a tent icon on the sign. We ended up driving back towards town and pulled into Elk Creek Campground to find a spot. It took a little while to find three tent spots amongst all the brush but we made it work and then enjoyed just sitting at the picnic table and catching up. The stars are amazing in the clear sky tonight.