At about mile 6, I came to Beacher Spring, which is a great little artisenal well that flows constantly.  Refilling water here, I stoped to chat with some locals on ATVs. After a short break I pressed on. About 2pm it started to rain, and I had to break out rain gear. The rain quit around 3pm, but picked back up around 4pm and continued the rest of the day.

Being cold and wet, I had a choice. I could stop around mile 20 and camp, or press and finish the 26.1 mile trail and go home to a warm shower and soft bed. I chose the latter, and pushed as hard as possible. I finished the trail about 9:15pm, using my headlamp for the last 45 minutes. After returning to My car, I changed into dry clothes, then proceeded to raid my food bag, eating almost everything that didn’t need to be cooked. Overall it was a very long and eventful day/night hike.

The afternoon was back and forth down rock roads and bad trail. About 5pm I hit cedar creek and stopped for a rest. Soon after I found the only decent view on the trail: 

About 7:30pm I’d had enough, and decided to stop. After reviewing my gps while lying here in my tent, I wish I’d pushed down to dry fork campground. So far the only trail traffic I’ve seen all day is a couple on horses shortly after the bugs chased me into the tent. They were pretty rude. Im also not a fan of the damage horses have done on this area either. I don’t think I’ll be coming back here anytime soon. My plan is to get up early and push to leave this trail behind me. After bushwacking through a bunch of crappy “trails” I need a bath badly.

Tldr; skip cedar creek.

Broke camp early and headed back. Return trip was pretty uneventful. Most of the last stint was downhill. The only thing that slowed me down was the abundance of spider webs crossing the path every few feet. I must have destroyed 5 spider-years worth of effort on my way down the mountain.

I only encountered one other hiker on the trail, and he was heading out. I arrived in camp pretty late, taking time to check out the available campsites. All other campsites near the summit were empty. For all intents and purposes, I have a mountain all to myself tonight. Since this campsite has an established fire ring, I may even enjoy a campfire for an hour or so after dark…