September 1

I had a great nearo day and a surprise visitor on the trail! I love that my nearo days mean I do 10 miles now. Nearo means "near zero" and 10 miles is only a third of my day and after a town day I can do all 10 in less than 3 hours. I downloaded "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky after enjoying "Crime and Punishment" thoroughly. 

My surprise visitor came by tonight at 8:30 pm as I was reading in my tent. It was none other than "Bink" aka Scott Williamson on his way through to see if he can take back his record. We chatted for quite a while, and it was nice to get news from behind me on the trail for once! There are a lot more sobos on trail than I thought, and it sounds like I am right in the middle, if not toward the front of the sobo pack. The nearest to me is Zeke The Freak and he's estimated to be at Crater Lake at this time. It sounds like there is about 30 of us trying to make the sobo journey and Scott assured me I wouldn't have snow issues in the High Sierras when I go through them. He lives in Truckee and says snow might fall and it will be cold, but not to worry about getting snowed in. That's a huge weight on my mind right now, and I'll believe it when I'm through. It was good chatting with him and now I wish I would have hiked the extra three miles to the next campsite so I could get up and hike with him in the morning. I could set my alarm for 3 am and maybe catch him and hike with him tomorrow, but I'd rather sleep in till 5 am being that it's a holiday.