I woke up at the shelter, convinced I was alone now. I heard a “tap, tap, tap” in the dark. I turned my headlamp on quickly, hoping to see what was making the noise. A little mouse was trying to take an acorn between the gap in the boards, down into what I assumed was his hideyhole. The acorn wasn’t going to fit. It was like a scene out of the old-school Disney Cinderella. I laughed. And went back to sleep (well, first I snapchatted my sister and used the temperature filter to see how cold it was. 36F! I had only brought my summer quilt!)
When the sun was up, I decided to start walking. I only had 19 miles to Eagles Nest shelter or 28.8 miles to my car. Either way, no bad. I went with just a little water and figured I’d fill up at 501 shelter in 4 miles. 

Well, an hour or so later I figured I should be getting close. I pulled out my phone to check the GPS and realized I’d hiked 4.4 miles…in the wrong direction. 
Well. 
What can you do? I turned around and 8.8 miles later I was right back where I started. I went .2 off trail to get water only to find nothing but a puddle. I started scooping water, absolutely desperate, and then saw the dead salamander. 

Well. 
What can you do? I filtered a bottle of dead salamander water and walked on. 

I took like 4 pictures all day. Here they are. 
Two snakes and a view:

There was very little water in this section. Well, there WAS some water but it was always off trail and I was already so ticked off about having walked that extra 8.8 miles that I kept refusing to go. I finally got to this old shelter site with a good water source but I just didn’t see the water. I tried to engineer this puddle into some sort of flow, but it just wasn’t working. 

Well. 
Then I looked down the side of the trail and there’s a huge stream. Of course. I scrambled down the hill and filtered bottles full, a beaver warning me off with his tail beating the ground. 
And then I walked 1 more minute and it was like some sort of water oasis and all these flowing little streams crossing RIGHT over the trail. Way to go Lindsey. 
So, I walked some more. I changed my socks. And I night hiked. And eventually I got to the shelter. There were two hikers already asleep at 8pm, so I was quiet and slept. 

Miles: 8.8+19.2=28
MVP: beaver water

LVP: dead salamander water