I tried having morning coffee and breakfast in my tent but I could not relax. The bugs assured me that I could not "relax" nor "enjoy myself".

The mosquitoes were waiting for me. DEET or more coffee?

I climbed out of my tent and the mosquitoes got to hear my animated sailor mouth. After a hurried packing I was on the trail at 5:15am.

Today was my last chance to hike a 40 mile day before I turned 40 years old. I figured I would wait and see how the day went and hopefully it would be possible.

The trail was a lot of minor ups and downs but mostly flat. At one point I went to cross a stream on a log that was a good six feet above the water. I did fine until the end when I hit a knot in the tree with my foot and lost my balance. Fortunately I fell straight down and landed on both feet....but into about two feet of water. Some dogs barked off in the distance so someone was camped nearby. Figuring I woke them up I got out of the area pretty quickly.

After several miles the trail started climbing and I saw a few day

hikers. A woman recognized me. She was taking photos and had seen me before Carson Pass a few days ago.

At one point I decided to stop and stretch, I hadn't stretched this

month yet. Some hikers stretch every morning, I don't fall into that camp.

I also had to stop again a while later and break out the Vagisil. My butt cheeks were starting to catch fire and I didn't have a campfire permit. The Vagisil worked its wonders as I rocketed up to the top of the next ridge, listening to a Springsteen show from 9/21/78.

At the top of the ridge it looked like I was going to have 30 miles in sometime around dinnertime, so 40 was in fact possible.

I had to stop around 4:30pm, make dinner, and rest a bit. Of course I had to break the tent out and use it as a bug blanket/sauna but it was better than getting bit another 100,000 times.

Got going about 5:15 after a quick stop to take a couple Advil.

The trail climbed its third 1000 foot climb of the day towards Alpine Meadows ski area. At the top I looked for some podcasts to listen to. The Apple Podcast app won't download anything over 50 megs unless you are on Wi-Fi.

I found a podcast about "How Stuff Works" or something like that...it was some CNN thing. The episode I had was about Burning Man. I went to Burning Man in 2003 with my friend Kevin and had a good time. The monotone hosts of the show both expressed how they had no desire to go to Burning Man, yet they were going to spend the next 20 minutes telling me about it. Why should I care then? The podcast didn't survive the deadly swipe of my finger.

I made the 4th and final 1000 foot climb up to the ridge where Tinker Knob is. TK is this little rock outcrop on top of a ridge above Truckee. The Clash powered me up the hill, mostly me trying to figure out the lyrics to "Cheapskates".

It was dark by the time I reached the top. I could see I-80 and Truckee! It was nice to hike the ridge at night plus it was a little bit spooky since it dropped off into the oblivion (or five feet...who could tell in the dark). At around mile 38 for the day the trail turned to a mess of shale rocks that were difficult and painful to walk on.

With minor fanfare I passed mile 40 around 11:00pm. I walked a bit

further looking for a spot to camp and found one in another third of a mile or so. Pitched the minimal tent setup and was asleep almost before I could get the sleeping bag out. Four miles left for tomorrow....